News feed
News from the partners
The quarter ended 31 March 2010
Who we are
HMT Assurance is a leading independent practice providing audit, tax and other related services with an exceptional track record of working with a wide range of clients to achieve their goals.
We are an entrepreneurial team of highly experienced advisers; all of the Partners are ex 'Big 4' and have had experience both within and outside the profession.
What we have been doing
The start to 2010 has been encouraging. There is still much gloom and doom about in the press and general commentary but we have seen a definite ‘pick-up’ in activity. We are aware that we have a privileged and to an extent biased view as we have a client base that is full of focused management teams with clear objectives to grow their businesses and meet any challenges thrown at them. However, even this group has been deferring decisions for one reason or another over the past 12-18 months during the uncertain financial conditions. We hope this is coming to an end as we have been engaged in a number of interesting projects which we have summarised below;
Who we are
HMT Assurance is a leading independent practice providing audit, tax and other related services with an exceptional track record of working with a wide range of clients to achieve their goals.
We are an entrepreneurial team of highly experienced advisers; all of the Partners are ex 'Big 4' and have had experience both within and outside the profession.
What we have been doing
The start to 2010 has been encouraging. There is still much gloom and doom about in the press and general commentary but we have seen a definite ‘pick-up’ in activity. We are aware that we have a privileged and to an extent biased view as we have a client base that is full of focused management teams with clear objectives to grow their businesses and meet any challenges thrown at them. However, even this group has been deferring decisions for one reason or another over the past 12-18 months during the uncertain financial conditions. We hope this is coming to an end as we have been engaged in a number of interesting projects which we have summarised below;
- Statutory demerger – as part of their wider strategy one of our clients has decided to split its two operating divisions using the provisions of the statutory demerger
- Sales mandates – reasonably common for us, but there have been a number of issues to deal with the ensure the tax exposures are identified and mitigated and the process is managed well for our client commercially
- Debt to equity conversion – One of our clients together with their investor asked us to investigate a conversion of a large debt instrument into a form of equity that would minimise the change in commercial terms as much as possible. This is a complex area, covering legal, accounting and tax aspects as well as understanding the commercial drivers of the arrangement and the business needs.
- Restructuring using the provisions of the new Companies Act – Our client needed to restructure a complex group without creating any tax exposures or creating any unlawful transactions. The main issue related to the lack of availability of distributable reserves. We managed to guide our client through the new provisions of the Companies Act 2006 to reduce capital and produce a workable solution to the issue.
- IFRS 3 purchase price allocation – a new client to us required an analysis of goodwill to help them prepare their first accounts under International Accounting Standards. As is often the case the timetable was short but the analysis needed to be robust enough to satisfy any potential challenge
Let’s hope the activity continues and 2010 brings further opportunities for us and our clients.