Baker Tilly has acquired the profitable parts of the RSM Tenon Group, including its audit business, after a morning of corporate manoeuvring during which RSM fell into administration.

Early this morning, Baker Tillly announced that it did not intend to make an offer for RSM Tenon, after weeks of discussions about a possible buyout.

Subsequently, RSM Tenon announced that it was going into administration. Shortly after, Baker Tilly announced it had acquired the trading operations of RSM Tenon Group, including its audit business.

Baker Tilly was ninth in last year’s Charity Audit Survey by Charity Finance magazine, ranked by audit fees from charity clients.  It had audit fees of £1.13m from 58 charity clients.

Despite winning dozens of new audits from schools who had opted out of local authority control to become academies, Baker Tilly had fallen from fourth place in the rankings the year before. In 2011 its 70 charity clients provided £1.5m in fees.  

RSM Tenon was 25th in the list last year, down slightly from 23 the previous year.  It had audit fees of £106,134 from 11 charity clients, compared with £143,683 from 13 clients in 2011.

It is the UK's only listed accountancy firm.