MHA, Baker Tilly International’s UK member firm, this week announced that it’s merging with Ireland-based accounting and advisory firm Roberts Nathan.

Baker Tilly is a top ten accounting network with more than 43,000 employees as of December. It generated $5.2 billion in sales last year, an 11% increase over 2022. Baker Tilly generates its revenue not only in the accounting services market, its core focus area, but also other parts of the consulting landscape including the M&A support and IT advisory verticals. 

Roberts Nathan, in turn, focuses on providing audit, tax services and business advisory services. Its offerings in the latter segment cover a variety of areas ranging from business performance reviews to helping companies plan growth initiatives. The firm’s services are delivered by a team of 70 professionals who operate out of offices in Cork and Dublin.

Roberts Nathan plans to significantly grow its headcount following the merger with MHA. The plan is to create 100 new positions at multiple seniority levels across its audit, advisory and tax teams. “In terms of the hiring push this is very much being driven by the strong sector growth we are seeing across our core areas,” Vivian Nathan, the managing partner of Roberts Nathan, told Boardroom Insight. Roberts Nathan is set to start trading as Baker Tilly Ireland on July 1 and the executive will become Baker Tilly Ireland’s regional chief operations officer.

The firm will offer hybrid working options as part of its recruiting push. The executive explained that “in terms of hybrid working this is now a fact of life and the nature of our services allows this to be very effective. We need to be able to reach out to all levels of talent available and hence the need to offer this to potential recruits.”

The merger also has other implications that extend beyond the recruiting arena. “With the Baker Tilly brand we will naturally feed into the worldwide group and would expect to see a significant bounce in international referrals,” Nathan told Boardroom Insight. “I think that clients will see that while we are currently a full service practice this will allow us to leverage the vast experience and reach that Baker Tilly offers and they will benefit from this. It will also I think push us into larger work that we will now be able to service.”

MHA’s merger with Roberts Nathan comes about seven months after the Baker Tilly member firm established a presence in Scotland by acquiring Aberdeen-based Meston Reid & Co. That deal was preceded by three acquisitions in Wales: Cardiff firms Watts Gregory and HJE Healthcare Accountants, plus Swansea-based Gerald Thomas.

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