The onward march of private equity through the professions, a story to be continued...

A licence to take on the Big Four, and a cup of tea with the new team at Interpath

Blink and you might have missed it, but at the end of last week Grant Thornton USA became the latest big name in professional services to change to a private equity ownership model.

New Mountain Capital have taken a majority stake in the US $2.4bn accountancy and professional services business, following H&F’s US$1bn investment in Baker Tilly.

And in 2021 Interpath spun out of the restructuring team at KPMG with private equity backing from H.I.G. Europe, the European affiliate of H.I.G. Capital, a leading global alternative investment firm.

With Deloitte pulling out of the regional market, a tighter focus on sector specialisms by some of the leading advisory firms such as Houlihan Lokey and Clearwater, I’ve been trying to get a sense for who’s next and what it means for the advisory market in the regions we cover.

And that’s not to forget the effect that Jonathan Boyers joining US consulting giant Alvarez & Marsal is going to have on UK and European advisory more broadly.

For now, he’s in a temporary exile, sometimes in Dubai, occasionally in Mumbai, and recently spotted in Cheshire again, but he is prevented from speaking as he waits for his restrictive period as a KPMG partner to kick in.   

So, over a lot of cups of tea, and sitting down with the principals of some of the leading firms, here’s what I think might be happening.