THE Dental Business Unit at UNW chartered accountants and business advisers is celebrating a record 12 months, helping to sell almost £20m worth of dental practices nationwide.
Newcastle-based UNW LLP, which has been established as one the UK’s leading accountancy practices for dentists for many years, reports selling five separate practices across the UK in transactions worth more than £17m.
The firm says the outlook for its dental team in 2016 is looking equally buoyant, with a series of deals, including finance raisings, acquisitions and disposals on behalf of dentists, in the pipeline.
The news comes after UNW – which has grown every year for the last 10 years –cemented its position of delivering long term, sustainable growth having recently reported a firm-wide 10% rise in turnover. In the six months to September 2015, UNW delivered an annualised revenue rate of more than £8m.
Dental specialist partner Alan Suggett said “I’m delighted, not only with record total amount of the deals, but also with the geographical spread from Newcastle and South Shields, down to Lincoln, Bradford and Nottingham.
“We are also helping more dentists than ever before to buy their own practices, which is exciting for us because they are our clients of the future.
“Dentists like us not only because of the very specialist knowledge we have built up about the various technical issues which make dental businesses unusual, but also because they can easily tap into our in-house experts from our Corporate Finance and Tax teams should they need them. Our offering is truly full service and therefore different to most other dental accountants, or local firms with little or no dental expertise.”
As well as advising dentists, Mr Suggett is also advising other accountants, and during 2015 has been on a national tour presenting to around 300 other accountants in 10 locations, including London, Cardiff, Bristol and Birmingham, about the unique needs of dental clients.
Suggett, a guest speaker at The Dentistry Show 2016 at Birmingham’s NEC in April, said: “We want to be regarded as the best dental accountants in the UK and the tour has been about educating other accountants in how to work for dentists and demonstrating our capability.
“We have established UNW’s dental reputation with healthcare bankers, lawyers and practice sales agents, as well as the BDA, NHS Pensions and the CQC, the logical next step was with the accountancy profession.”
UNW will be hosting a Business of Dentistry briefing, along with speakers from Say Consultancy, Carol Groombridge Consulting, Practice Plan and Sintons law firm, at its Citygate premises in Newcastle between 6pm and 8.30pm on Thursday, 28 January.
To register for the event, dentists should email roduns@unw.co.uk