A HISTORIC property-surveying business with an office in Bradford has changed hands in a deal worth nearly £9 million.

Eddisons, a West Yorkshire-based national firm of chartered surveyors, has been acquired by business recovery specialist Begbies Traynor Group as part of an expansion and diversification strategy.

Begbies has acquired Eddisons from its management which bought the business in 2008. In the year to March 31 Eddisons has revenues of £13.4 million.

Begbies executive chairman Ric Traynor said the deal would add complementary expertise to its core insolvency business as Eddisons had been appointed as receiver to more than 200 property insolvencies a year. Eddisons brought expertise in the valuation and disposal of property and business assets for insolvency, which was intrinsic to Begbies Traynor’s core insolvency practice.

The move would enable Begbies to use Eddisons to handle its existing caseload rather than using subcontractors as well as being able to market its expanded range of services to a combined client base, including banks and other financial institutions.

Begbies said the deal should produce cost savings of around £500,000 by March 2016 through operating synergies and using shared properties.

The transaction was in line with the group’s stated strategy to expand its market-leading insolvency practice through developing complementary service offerings, including valuation consulting, and is expected to be earnings enhancing in the current financial year. Eddisons, which was founded in 1844, has around 200 full time employees and has UK-wide coverage with offices in Leeds, London, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow and Nottingham.

Its Bradford office is in Caspian House, East Parade, Little Germany.

In 2012 it opened a new Bradford auction centre which attracts buyers from around the globe for its regular online sales. The 15,000 sq ft centre in Lower Lane, East Bowling, enables West Yorkshire companies to dispose of surplus assets and stock.

Eddisons will continue to be run by the current management team, with the key shareholder directors contracted to remain with the business for at least five years. The firm will maintain its existing trading brands and will operate as a separate division within the BegbiesTraynor Group.

Anthony Spencer, executive director of Eddisons, said:“We are delighted to become part of the BegbiesTraynor Group and believe it represents the next stage in the development of Eddisons with a good cultural fit between the two organisations.”

“We are retaining our brand identity and will operate as a discrete business within the combined group, whilst taking advantage of the opportunities represented by being part of a significant, financially robust, national business.”