How Gravita delivered an accelerated audit for Aria Care

About Aria Care

Aria Care was created three years ago when a portfolio of homes was taken back from a previous operator and brought under a new brand and leadership team. Many of the homes had been underinvested for years, so the business launched a major improvement programme, investing more than £25 million from early 2023 to upgrade the estate, raise occupancy and strengthen financial performance.

The group then moved into a period of expansion. It acquired the Future Care portfolio of 18 homes, fully integrating the business by the end of January, and completed a comprehensive group-wide budgeting process to support its enlarged structure. With plans to grow beyond 100 homes through further acquisitions and development, Aria Care built the operational and financial momentum that ultimately contributed to its sale.

The challenges

Aria Care’s audit was significantly more complex than in previous years. The group had completed a major acquisition, added 18 homes and introduced a new holding company. This created a new group structure that required fresh consolidation work, along with both merger accounting and acquisition accounting.

At the same time, the finance team was heavily involved in the multimillion pound sale process. Extensive due diligence activity meant the team could not prepare information at the pace originally planned, and the audit had to be paused. With limited internal capacity and increased technical demands, the original timetable could no longer be met.

When the transaction accelerated, the deadline was brought forward by more than a month. This created a very tight window to deliver a multi-entity audit with new structures, new accounting treatments and heightened scrutiny from multiple stakeholders. The compressed timetable left almost no room for delay and required the audit to be completed at speed while maintaining quality.

How Gravita helped

Gravita’s Audit Partner, Sarah Wilson, re-planned the audit to meet the accelerated deadline and increased resource immediately. The team had the resource to scale up quickly to manage the new group structure, the acquisition and merger accounting, and the higher volume of work created by the additional entities. Senior technical specialists supported the consolidation and accounting complexities, while the core team reorganised work so reviews could take place in real time.

Close collaboration with Aria Care was central to maintaining momentum. Gravita worked with the finance team each day to prioritise information and resolve issues quickly. As individual entities were completed, they were finalised progressively to build confidence across all stakeholders.

To meet the required deadline, the team worked long hours including evenings and weekends. The final holding company and consolidated accounts were completed within the compressed timeframe, allowing the sale to proceed without delay.