ACCOUNTANCY firm Grant Thornton has clinched a takeover of rival RSM Robson Rhodes.

The deal, sealed this weekend, will establish Grant Thornton as clear leader of the mid-tier of UK accountancy operations behind the “big four” of Price Water-house Coopers, KPMG, Deloitte & Touche and Ernst & Young.

The future of Robson Rhodes, currently reckoned to be Britain’s 11th-largest accountancy business, has been in the balance for months. Plans for the firm to be taken over by its American affiliate RSM McGladrey were hatched last autumn.

The RSM McGladrey deal was aimed at giving Robson Rhodes a fresh capital injection and was billed as the first full takeover of a British firm by an American outfit. Other tie-ups have been limited to affiliations of firms within an international network.

However, it was clear by the beginning of this month that the move had run into problems.

RSM McGladrey is an offshoot of the US tax-advisory business H&R Block, which has been caught up in the turmoil in the sub-prime lending market. The firm has had to put aside more than $120m (£60m) for expected losses in one of its mortgage-lend-ing businesses this year.

Nobody was available from Grant Thornton to comment on the takeover, but sources said the Robson Rhodes deal was approved at a Grant Thornton partners’ meeting on Friday.

A spokeswoman for Robson Rhodes said: “We are constantly reviewing our options. We always assess these opportunities when they arise.”

Robson Rhodes employs about 900 people and has seven offices in England plus one each in Edinburgh, Belfast and Dublin.

Last year Grant Thornton’s revenues rose by 8% to about £275m, in contrast to RSM Robson Rhodes which suffered a fall in income.

The firm is currently the focus of a probe by the Accountancy Investigation and Discipline Board over its role in the scandal of iSoft and its contract with the National Health Service.

Within the so-called mid-tier of accountancy firms, BDO and Grant Thornton are far larger than the remainder. Baker Tilley is some way behind.

Trailing Baker Tiley is a further clutch of significantly smaller concerns, including Smith & Williamson, PKF, Renon, Moore Stephens, Robson Rhodes and others.

The second-tier players have been vocal in trying to challenge the near-monopoly enjoyed by the ‘’big four’’ over audit work for companies within the FTSE-350, but so far they have had little success.

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