When Drivers Jonas merged with one of the world’s largest accountancy firms, Deloitte, 18 months ago, opinion was divided over whether a bunch of surveyors could fit in with a group of accountants. One side liked to do its business in the pub, the other in close proximity to a calculator.
And although the bosses have extolled the virtues of the merger – Deloitte gets access to a vast property knowledge and a mass of public sector expertise, while DJ gets to pore over the mountain of work in which the top-five accountant is involved – just how is it working at ground level?
Alexandra Houghton is one of a handful of Drivers Jonas surveyors who works comfortably across both the DJ and Deloitte businesses.
Houghton was in the strategic consulting team at DJ, working on public sector advisory, setting out real estate strategy for her clients. At DJD she is now part of the real estate strategy and finance team.
For her, the merger has created a host of opportunities that may never have come her way had DJ stayed independent.
The biggest opportunity – and the steepest learning curve – has been Houghton’s involvement in Deloitte’s insolvency work. The first project she was instructed to work on was the administration of Targetfollow, including the sale of iconic London landmark Centrepoint.
Targetfollow
The collapse of companies within the Targetfollow Group has been one of the largest of the downturn. Subsidiaries of the Norwich-based business failed with more than £700m of debt, due mostly to Lloyds Banking Group. That debt was held against a portfolio of 28 properties that Deloitte and DJD have been steadily working through and selling.
Houghton says the team she works for is brought in as soon as Deloitte is appointed as administrator. It is then their job to draw up the best strategy for the business, providing the best return for the lender and all the other creditors involved.
Houghton says working on the Targetfollow project was an eye-opener and an experience she was unlikely to have had if DJ had remained a simple surveying firm.
But she is quick to point out that Deloitte also benefited from having DJ surveyors within the business during the administration.
As the administration order was brought down, says Houghton, staff from across the business had to go into each of the 28 properties owned by the two Targetfollow companies that had collapsed – Targetfollow Property Holdings and Targetfollow Property Investment & Development – to hand over the orders. Here Deloitte could utilise DJ’s regional offices to help with the legwork.
“Targetfollow was my first project and through it I have learned so much about insolvency,” says Houghton. “It has been a very interesting experience. Disposing of a property of the scale of Centrepoint was something I had not had a huge amount of experience in, but it’s an amazing reward when you actually sell it and get a great result for the bank.”
And while it is insolvency work that is currently keeping Houghton busy – she is also working on the administration and sale of half-built residential project IYLO in Croydon, south London – she says the uniqueness of her team enables it to remain active in any kind of business environment.
“Being in a team like mine gives us some security due to the counter-cyclical nature of public sector and insolvency work,” she says. “At DJ we did a lot of work in the public sector. Now we can continue that work and have access to Deloitte’s clients.”
Houghton admits the merger with Deloitte did throw up a number of challenges, not least because the accountant is regulated by the Financial Services Authority, which meant a lot of unexpected corporate compliance for DJ employees. But she says the opportunities far outweigh the challenges.
Outside comfort zone
“People are encouraged to get involved in all types of work,” says Houghton. “For me, it has been really great to be pushed outside my comfort zone. You have to put yourself out there and then the opportunities will come.”
One of those opportunities has been to complete a public sector accountancy course. And while Houghton is the first to admit she is no accountant, the skill can only help her progress in her current role.
Alongside the career opportunities Houghton says have been opened up to her by working across both DJD and the wider Deloitte business, she says being a part of such a large corporate beast brings a number of other benefits.
The campus, based around New Fetter Lane, EC4, includes a gym, doctor, optician, cashpoint and even a train ticket machine. “The facilities are awesome,” says Houghton.
But for sports enthusiast Houghton, Deloitte’s charitable giving has impressed her most.
The company has enabled her to take part in the Cycle to Cannes ride from London to the MIPIM conference in the south of France and the firm’s own mass cycle event, The Ride Across Britain. It is now supporting her as she prepares to travel to Beijing next month to take part in the Triathlon World Championships as an age grouper for Team GB.
“I’ve now got a real insight into how Deloitte works,” says Houghton. “Having been in a half-DJ, half-Deloitte team means I’ve been at the sharp end of the merger and so have been among the first to try things out.”
“And,” she jokes, “I’ve also learned that accountants really aren’t that dull.”
