Suzanne Brownie tells Andrew Youngston how organising sports events at work has opened up a chance to play for her county…

http://www.aab.co.uk/knowledge/technical-articles-and-briefings/doc_download/280-sport-builds-bridges-in-the-workplace/

We are delighted to announce that Anderson Anderson & Brown LLP has been selected as a finalist in the 2013 Scottish Accountancy Awards for the award category; Accountancy firm of the year.

The Scottish Accountancy Awards are celebrating their sixth year & will be celebrating the vital ‘behind the scenes’ role that accountants play in ensuring the effectiveness of both companies and public sector organisations.

A panel of independent experts will judge the awards, with research being carried out by the Business School at Edinburgh Napier University. In the award category ‘Accountancy Firm of the Year’ judges will be looking at a number of areas including leadership, growth, innovation, client service and CSR.

The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in Glasgow on Thursday, June 20.

Anderson Anderson & Brown (“AAB”) are delighted to have advised long term clients Enovate Systems Limited in the sale to Aker Solutions.

Aker acquired a majority stake in Aberdeen based Enovate, a leading technology company providing subsea well control equipment. The financial details of the acquisition are undisclosed however in the financial year 2012, Enovate had revenues of approximately £15m with an EBITDA of £5m.

Enovate, which currently employs 62 people, are a engineering and product provider to the worldwide energy sector, primarily to construct and supply new technologies relating to drilling BOPs, well control, well completion and well intervention operations. Enovate has developed a wide range of unique and patented components and products for use in open water work over systems, in riser work over systems, rig less intervention systems and drilling safety systems. Specific advantages are superior cutting and sealing capabilities and the unique use of complete metal to metal sealing solutions.

AAB has acted as advisors to Enovate since it was established in 2002, providing a full range of audit, tax and corporate finance services. Having assisted in the start up in 2002 and supported the company since Client Service Partner Derek Mair commented on the deal “To see Enovate grow and develop from a start up has been very rewarding and now Aker can help take the Enovate business to the next level, while the shareholders, most of who work in the company, have been rewarded for the value created in the last decade.”

Enovate founder, Jeff Edwards said “Aker Solutions is a group with significant in-house opportunities for our technology and with access to Aker’s infrastructure and resources our capacity and ability to serve clients internationally will be enhanced”. Jeff and the current management team will continue to work for the company with Jeff assuming the role as Chief Technology Officer.

Burness Paull & Williamsons LLP acted as legal advisors to Enovate on the sale, having advised the company since incorporation.

Tony Kitchener, of Frontrow Energy Partners worked closely with Jeff and was instrumental in initiating and project managing the deal on behalf of Enovate.

Touch of Tartan Ball

Anderson Anderson & Brown have been proud sponsors of the Touch of Tartan Ball for the last seven years. The Ball raises funds for Children 1st to support them in their work with vulnerable children and young people who need support and the 25th Silver Anniversary Ball held in November 2012 raised over £151,000, bringing the total handed over to the charity from the annual Ball to over £1.6 million to date.

Elaine Parr, our Charity Services Senior Manager has been the Treasurer of the Ball Committee since 2006 and a team of six staff from the firm also volunteered to help on the night, one of whom, Rebecca Davidson is pictured below handing over a tombola prize to the guests of honour Laurence and Jackie Llewelyn-Bowen.

We are delighted to announce that AAB has been recognised by the Scottish Business Insider as the top dealmakers in Scotland in 2012 for the 8th consecutive year (2005-2012), both in terms of deals initiated and deals completed. This is a fantastic accolade for the firm and reflects our leading market position and our track record for initiating and executing deals involving Scottish companies. Please find attached the 2012 league tables.

AAB Sponsorship

Patrick Young aged 11, nephew of AAB Partner James Pirrie and sponsored by AAB, has had a number of achievements in tennis. Most recently, he won the Stewart Milne under 12s title at Westburn at Christmas and also winning a men’s box league in Stonehaven where Patrick was the youngest entrant by 5 years. Patrick is coached 6 days a week in Stonehaven, Montrose, at David Lloyd and at Westburn, in a combination of individual lessons and squads. Patrick has enough wins to improve to a rating of 7.1 at the end of the month which is impressive for his age. He is playing for the North East of Scotland in a 3 day inter-county competition at Kilgraston School in Perthshire during the Easter holidays, he’s playing as number 2 in the under15s pair, he’ll be 12 by then!

Patrick also has lots of competition lined up in the summer term so here’s hoping for some success in these!

AAB also continue to sponsor Greig Hutcheon – good luck for the coming season Greig!

Anderson Anderson & Brown’s Fundraising Committee handed over the proceeds of their 2012 fundraising effort today – a cheque for £14,000 to the Department of Neurology at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. This charity was chosen at the request of a member of AAB’s accounting team, Tracey Ogston, pictured with her surgeon Pragnesh Bhatt and Val Huggins of the Fundraising Committee.

Tracey was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2011 and was so impressed with the level of care she received from the department, in particular from Mr Bhatt, and wanted to give something back. Mr Bhatt was delighted with the size of the donation, the biggest they have received to date, and it has enabled them to purchase a state of the art microscope which is used during actual surgery – never before have they been able to identify such a groundbreaking level of detail during brain surgery.

Staff at Anderson Anderson & Brown were involved in a number of fundraising events during the year – running marathons, bake sales, quizzes, raffles, wear a colour to work day etc, and were also able to encourage clients to donate during corporate events.

National Payroll Team Award for A2+B

A2+B LLP’s payroll team has won the Payroll Team Award – Bureau/Service Provider in the annual Payroll World Awards 2012.

This prestigious award is recognition for excellent service delivery and was achieved against strong competition from a number of long-established payroll service providers throughout the UK.

In addition to winning the Payroll Team award they had two other individual nominations, namely; Payroll Manager Award (Gary Johnstone) and Outstanding Achievement Award (Rosalind Anderson), who both won through to the finalist section of their respective categories.

A2+B LLP’s payroll team has only been in existence for a little over two years. But, in that time, it has established itself as a valued service provider in what is an extremely competitive market.

Commenting on the award, Kevin Mann, a Tax Partner at Anderson Anderson & Brown, said “This is a truly amazing achievement for our team given the fact that we only commenced operation some two years ago. Relatively speaking we are ‘the new kids on the block’ and to be recognised in this way against the best in the UK shows we are doing a lot of things right. I am really proud of our team and the high service standards which we set ourselves have borne fruit. This award will spur us on to even greater things”.

In reaching their conclusion the judges said “Anderson Anderson & Brown’s team has excelled by increasing their client base while continuing to deliver strong customer satisfaction. At the same time they have clearly gone above and beyond what is expected of them by proactively improving not only their internal processes, procedures and systems, but also those of their clients.”

New Appointment – Business Development Manager

We are delighted to announce the appointment of Graeme Ross to the newly established role of Business Development Manager. This position within the firm will help support the Partners and Client Service Managers in their drive to promote and progress the business.

Graeme joins the firm from The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) where he was a Business Development Director. A top performer within the commercial team of RBS Scotland, he brings a wealth of business development experience to AAB and an in-depth knowledge of the North East business community. Graeme’s connections gathered over his years working with the bank will complement the extensive portfolio of clients and contacts already engaged with AAB.

Commenting on the appointment Managing Partner Mike Brown said “Graeme is an excellent addition to our Senior Team here at AAB, and brings a range of skills and experience. Graeme will spearhead the pursuit of the many opportunities that exist to work more closely with existing clients and the many positive new leads that come our way. He will also share his experience and knowledge with the management group and the wider staff complement, helping us all to develop our skillsets.”

We are delighted to announce the promotion of Derek Gemmell to Corporate Tax Director.

Derek trained originally as an accountant and auditor qualifying as a Chartered Accountant in 1997 before moving to Aberdeen to specialise in tax. Qualifying as a Chartered Tax Adviser in 2002, Derek joined the firm as a Senior Tax Manager in January 2008 and has since then provided specialist tax advice to the firm’s clients.

With his depth of experience on many areas of taxation, more recently Derek has spent an increasing amount of time advising Entrepreneurs on the taxes they find themselves exposed to as a result of their entrepreneurial activities. Additionally, he continues to work closely with his Corporate Finance colleagues to assist with all the tax aspects of corporate transactions.

Gill Pryde, Head of Taxation, commented “By enhancing the leadership of the tax team, we are confident that this director appointment will further strengthen our client service delivery. Derek has a broad range of skills and he is committed to helping clients with advice and solutions. We wish Derek well in this challenging role.”