The partners of Grant Thornton UK LLP and RSM Robson Rhodes LLP have announced their agreement to merge the two firms to create one of the strongest accounting and business advisory groups in the UK.

The new organisation will operate as Grant Thornton UK LLP, with the merger expected to complete on 1 July 2007.

The merger firmly establishes Grant Thornton UK LLP as the UK's fifth largest accounting and business advisory group based on fee income (approximately £375M) with over 300 partners and 4,400 staff, operating from 33 locations.

Commenting on the deal, Michael Cleary, CEO of the newly merged business said: "RSM Robson Rhodes represents a perfect fit for Grant Thornton, boosting the firm's expertise and reputation in financial services, property & construction, health and education and public sector work."

"It is also a boost to our efforts to break down those market perceptions which would not naturally associate Grant Thornton with the larger public audit market. We are now gearing ourselves to stimulate competition and offer stakeholders greater choice in this space. This deal stretches our existing dominance as the adviser and auditor of choice on AIM and more than doubles our presence on the FTSE. We have considerably added to our firepower to consistently challenge the Big 4 in key areas in order to meet our objective of creating a firm with revenues in excess of half a billion pounds over the next three years."

.David Maxwell, managing partner at RSM Robson Rhodes said “This merger creates class leading teams in audit and tax as well as in the specialist areas of Project Finance, Corporate Finance, Forensic and Corporate restructuring to name but a few. It further boosts our dominant role on AIM, that of leading auditor within the public sector and biggest auditor of stock market companies outside of the Big 4."