Matthew Garstang, CEO at Opulus, commented: “Our joining of forces with such a long-established practice with dedicated staff and an established client base represents a wonderful opportunity for both Opulus and Wylie & Bisset.
“Donald and his team have worked exceptionally hard to grow the practice over recent years, investing heavily in organic growth, together with succession planning for senior staff and a newly launched training academy.
“This is unquestionably a major step forward for the business and will instantly form an integral part of our group, significantly helping us to expand our unique CFO solutions offering far and wide.”
He added, "The team at SME Capital worked with us throughout the process to truly understand our business and tailored a funding solution to suit our needs. Their ongoing support and funding will facilitate the next stage of our growth and we are delighted to have them on board."
Donald McKinnon, managing partner at Wylie & Bisset, added: “What we are creating together with Opulus is a ‘hub and spoke’ model whereby, as full-service accountants and business advisers, we will operate as a ‘hub’ to provide a range of service lines and support to a network of regional ‘spoke’ accountancy practices within the wider Opulus group for the benefit of our clients.
“We remain fully committed to the expansion of our business and, by working alongside Opulus, can see opportunities for economies of scale to be realised through Wylie & Bisset adding value to the Opulus group structure.
“Indeed, while our origins date back to 1787, we have operated under our current name of Wylie & Bisset for some 95 years and, together with Opulus, look forward to celebrating our centenary.”
SME Capital Co-Head of Origination and Head of Portfolio Investment, Kenny Hughes, said, "Since we first met with Matthew and the teams at Opulus and N4 Partners, we immediately recognised the opportunity they had in front of them to strategically expand its unique hub and spoke offering and take a big next step forward through this key addition of Wylie & Bisset.
We have been impressed throughout with their growth plans and are delighted we are able to support Matthew and the team and look forward to working closely with them going forward.
This will be the largest transaction SME Capital has completed to date and builds on our commitment to continue support for growing businesses in Scotland and across the whole of the UK.“
The development follows smaller acquisitions by Opulus of Glasgow-headquartered Nicolson Accountancy, John Kerr & Co in Saltcoats, Alexander Marshall in Motherwell and Craig Cleland in East Kilbride.
By joining forces, Wylie & Bisset will quadruple the Opulus workforce from 40 to some 160 employees, while Wylie & Bisset’s turnover will result in combined revenues under Opulus of circa £11million.
Opulus will shortly be rolling out its legal, HR and IT offerings to complement its existing accountancy and business advisory service lines to complete its holistic range of CFO solutions throughout Scotland.
Kenny Hughes, Dylan Smith and Stefan Nubert worked on the facility from SME Capital with John Maciver, Kirstyn Gleeson, Kyung Jae Park and Kesley Collins of Pinsent Mason advised SME Capital on the deal legals.
If you would like to in more detail our wider funding capabilities do get in touch.
About SME Capital
SME Capital was founded to support the growing number of SMEs who face difficulty or frustration in accessing capital through traditional methods. We understand the importance of real and trusted relationships in the SME lending market and have dedicated Regional Directors based across the UK. By combining traditional lending expertise with the latest in data analytics, we are supporting established UK SMEs with their long-term objectives and business ambitions.
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