Turner & Townsend is to follow its major rivals by becoming a limited liability partnership next month.

The firm, whose turnover is set to reach the 拢100m mark for the year to 30 April 2005, said this would simplify the structure of the business.

The move to LLP from partnership has already been made by major firms such as EC Harris, Davis Langdon and Gardiner & Theobald, and is taken to to reduce the amount of risk for partners in the event of legal action against their firm.

T&T鈥檚 chairman, Tim Wray, said: 鈥淲e have several divisions within the business that are already limited 鈥� but not the overall umbrella group. This puts it all under one banner.鈥�

Wray said the process, which had taken the firm six months, had been relatively straightforward and was helped by the prior move to LLP from T&T鈥檚 rivals. Wray said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 not particularly expensive or time consuming. The job of novating contracts has also been simple, as clients have already experienced that with other firms. It鈥檚 definitely the right time for us to do this.鈥�

Wray said he expected the firm鈥檚 turnover to increase further for the year 2005鈥�06, moving up to the 拢120m mark. This would be partially through geographical expansion in areas such as the Middle East and Ireland, Wray said.

This process isn鈥檛 particularly time-consuming or expensive鈥� it鈥檚 definitely the right time for us to do it

Tim Wray

The move by QS partnerships to LLP is also being made by smaller firms. Ridge, for example, which has five offices in England and a turnover of 拢15m, switched to LLP at the start of the year.

Partner Guy Austin said the firm had been concerned about the attitude of its bank to the move. He said: 鈥淪ome other practices told us our bank might take a different view of us if we went LLP. But it turned out fine, as we have a very good relationship with our bank.鈥� He said that all the partners had been in agreement about he move to LLP.

Austin said the firm, which has 200 staff, was concerned about the risk of legal action against staff. He said: 鈥淧eople are more litigiously minded these days. It鈥檚 less of a worry when going to LLP.鈥�

Austin said the move was also due to the increased emphasis on health and safety within the construction sector.

Source

QS News