Accounting and financial services firms Hill Rogers and Spencer Steer have merged operations to create a single entity with around $150 million in funds under management.
The merger was initiated 12 months ago and has created an accounting audit business and financial services group under the combined name of Hill Rogers Spencer Steer (HRSS).
HRSS vice chairman Graham Steer said the combined accounting audit business now comprised 80 staff and 10 directors, while the combined financial services business comprised five staff and one director.
“HRSS now has around $150 million in funds under management and services clients including high net worth individuals, large private companies, small public companies, subsidiaries of international firms, small to medium enterprises and super funds,” Steer said.
“Hill Rogers approached Spencer Steer with an offer as it wanted to expand its client base and bolster current services, and we at Spencer Steer felt greater economies of scale would bring more technical expertise and specialisation to the group.
“The fact that both businesses had very similar cultures was encouraging and why the merger has overall been a relatively smooth process.”
Steer said the merger also enhanced the group’s offering so that super and tax services were now stand-alone divisions within the accounting and audit business.
“This along with our financial services business will help expand our presence in the self-managed super fund (SMSF) space, in which we oversee about 270 SMSFs,” he said.
While pending legislative changes were not a motivation for the merger, HRSS was more confident it could deal with anything now that it was a more robust self-licensed firm, Steer said.
He added that while the group wanted to concentrate on growing organically, it would not rule out further mergers or acquisitions.
