The merger will push Menzies up the top 20 ranking of UK accounting firms, to 19th position. As a single entity, Menzies was ranked 20th with annual fee income of £32.2m in 2014, while Harris Lipman reported fee income of £4.7m in 2013-14 at 73rd position according to the annual Accountancy Top 75 firms survey.

In a concurrent deal, the firms bring together their substantial business recovery teams and these will now expand in London and continue to operate in Cardiff.

Julie Adams, senior partner at Menzies, said: ‘The merger increases the capacity of our own insolvency business as Harris Lipman has a fair chunk of fees from insolvency. But it is more about access for us, the geographic reach. The focus for us has always been London and the southeast down to the Solent, and aspirationally we’ve always wanted to look north of London. Whetstone is not far, but there is also a Cardiff restructuring office.

‘Our merger with Harris Lipman supports our growth plans for the northern Home Counties, and it further extends the reach of our business recovery team.'

Rebranded under the Menzies name, the two firms are both established and well respected in the entrepreneurial SME sector, and it extends Menzies’ presence to the north of London. Harris Lipman clients will benefit from access to Menzies’ specialist expertise in the more complex areas of international tax, VAT and HR.

‘Seven partners are joining us, while two are joining as consultants as they are retiring,’ Adams added. ‘A lot of what they did was outsourced, such as HR, so that made them quite attractive.’

Martin Atkins, managing partner at Harris Lipman, will be managing partner and office principal for the office in Whetstone, North London. 

The merged firm will be branded as Menzies with new signage and collateral likely to be in place within the next month. ‘We’re actually looking at a total rebrand and the [merged] firm will be known as Menzies.

‘Now we need to consolidate and invest management time to make this merger work,’ she said.

Currently the Harris Lipman Cardiff office focuses on restructuring and insolvency, but does not offer accounting services. Adams said there could be opportunities to expand the range of services available at that location but no decisions had been taken as yet.

Atkins said: ‘We believe this merger brings a wealth of additional expertise and geographical reach of those skills to our clients and creates great opportunities for our team. Both firms share the same ethos in terms of their client approach and team development and we are all looking forward to being part of a great business going forward.’

Under the terms of the merger, Harris Lipman’s offices and team in Whetstone in north London and Cardiff will continue to operate as normal, with the exception of the insolvency team currently based in Whetstone, which will relocate to join the Menzies insolvency team in Tavistock Square, London.

The merger reinforces Menzies’ position in the southeast and Adams does not rule out future acquisitions, particularly in the northern Home Counties.

‘We’re always interested to talk to people but the timing has to be right,’ she said.

Find out more about Menzies here