Top 20 [accounting] firm Vantis has announced it has entered administration weeks after suspending its shares.
A statement by the board said while directors had “vigorously explored” every available avenue to reduce debt, there was a lack of progress with those options.
This is, I admit, another case of “I told you so”. Sorry, these seem to be happening quite often. We can well do without this firm for the reason noted in the link.
But as one former employee told me in an email:
It’s been a torrid ride but tonight Vantis has gone into administration — thank God.
There’s a history to be written and its theme will be GREED. Overpaid Plc directors who sucked the business of cash to feather their own nests and who also over-traded and championed the most outrageous of tax avoidance schemes. A client said to me today that it comes to something when their financial advisers over-trade and end up going down.
Quite so. It’s another reason why the profession is well shot of Vantis plc.
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You might also note that Haliwells, one of the largest and fastest growing of the non-City law firms is also experiencing difficulties: http://www.thelawyer.com/halliwells%E2%80%99-assets-up-for-grabs-as-firm-files-to-go-into-administration/1004848.article
In your quote above: “Overpaid Plc directors who sucked the business of cash to feather their own nests”
From the Lawyer: “The firm, which posted record profits and turnover during the bull market, ran into difficulties when it took on new Manchester headquarters at Spinningfields in central Manchester in 2007, paying top-of-market rent believed to be £35 per sq ft. It subsequently ¬?distributed a property-related windfall to partners as opposed to investing it in the business.”
A theme emerging?
Richard,
Not all of us who worked for Vantis were “overpaid directors”. Not all of us championed “outrageous tax schemes”. Some of us simply tried to provide a professional service to our clients in the right way. Some of us are now redundant as a result of decisions and mistakes made by others.
You are free to your opinions and views (and I don’t suggest you are wrong), but gloating at a situation which has left decent, honest and hard working staff redundant in this difficult economic climate is beyond the pale and does you no credit, sorry.
[…] weight of debt has killed off the one time darling of the accounting firm aggregator market. Richard Murphy says: ‘I told you so.’ While I don’t fully agree with his reasoning, which he links to greed, the entitlement […]