Knowles plans another flotation

Roger Knowles is planning to float a company on the Stock Exchange again, just months after selling the company he formed to US group Hill International.

This time Knowles has hatched a plan with a former colleague to attract three to four medium-sized QS practises to merge together and then go public on the AIM listing.

Knowles and Patrick Lineen, who was finance director at Knowles for 16 years from 1986 to 2002 and was instrumental in floating the firm in 1998, have targeted 12 firms they think will be suitable to form a super practices that could take on major QS firms. The companies would be between £2-5m in turnover.

Lineen said the duo had received initial interest from the City in their idea. “We have a had preliminary contact with a stock broker and he’s confident he can raise the funds. He thinks QSs are attractive to the City – they have a stable source of income as opposed to riskier sectors such as hi-tech companies. The QS profession is ripe for this. They are all busy and fee rates will be improving.”

For full story see next week's edition of QS News