Private equity is reshaping the accountancy sector through consolidation, external capital, and technology-driven growth, creating new opportunities across professional services
The $5bn take-private offer for NYSE-listed CBIZ by Chicago-based Grant Thornton Advisors last month was yet another indicator of great changes in the competitive landscape of professional services, as we’ve highlighted recently in Preqin First Close.
Grant Thornton Advisors described the deal as the largest of its kind for more than a quarter of a century, making it the fifth-largest provider of professional, tax, and advisory services in the US.
The transaction comes as the firm continues to expand globally. New Mountain Capital first invested in Grant Thornton US in May 2024. It’s subsequently been joined by several firms around the world, most recently Grant Thornton Australia.
The CBIZ buyout is part of an ongoing shift from traditional partnership business models in professional services. In accountancy, these were primarily nationally based and regulated limited partnerships. But now it’s about new tie-ups, acquisitions, and external capital.
The International Federation of Accountants estimates more than 1,000 firms have undergone private equity investment over the past decade.
Noteworthy deals in the past two years have included Blackstone’s 2025 acquisition of a stake in New York-based Citrin Cooperman (ranked 18th in Accounting Today’s top 100 firms list) from New Mountain Capital.
Cinven took a majority stake in Grant Thornton UK in December 2024, reportedly valuing the firm at £1.5bn, and bought out Grant Thornton Germany in October 2025. Last month, Grant Thornton UK acquired Fairgrove, a strategic management consultancy founded in 2013.
In late 2024, Apax Partners acquired the S&W professional services division of Evelyn Partners, IK Partners took a majority stake in UK firm Dains from Horizon Capital, and UK firm Cooper Parry received a majority investment from funds managed by New York-based Lee Equity Partners.
In early 2025, Inflexion acquired a minority stake in Baker Tilly Netherlands, and AnaCap acquired a majority stake in Dutch firm DK Accountants & Adviseurs.
In February 2025, Apax Partners invested in New York-based CohnReznick. The same month, Ardian announced a private credit financing package for UK top-30 firm Gravita, which is backed by Tenzing Private Equity.
In January this year, Bridgepoint bought Interpath at a reported valuation of approximately $800mn, according to the FT. HIG Capital backed the original buyout of the former KPMG UK restructuring business in 2021. Among smaller deals, in February 2026 London-based Affinia linked up with three offices of UHY Hacker Young, backed by Sovereign Capital Partners.
However, the same month the FT speculated ‘investor appetite in professional services may be starting to wane’ when it reported that buyout firm Exponent had pulled out of a £1bn-plus sale process for Xeinadin.
But in March, Munich-based, EQT-backed tax advisory WTS expanded into the UK, and TowerBrook Capital Partners announced a continuation vehicle transaction for US firm EisnerAmper.
In April, RedBird Capital Partners announced an agreement to acquire Affinia – a UK provider of accounting services – from Sovereign Capital.
In June, TPG Growth invested in Atlanta-based Smith + Howard, and Madison Dearborn Partners and Norlantic Capital invested in Pennsylvania-based Stephano Slack.
KKR and co-investors backed the creation of an alternative practice structure for the non-audit advisory services of Chicago-based Crowe, in a deal worth nearly $3bn, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Also in June, Reverence Capital Partners invested in US top-20 accounting and advisory firm Eide Bailly.
In a paper titled Financializing the Professions: The Rise of Private Equity in Accounting, Inna Abramova of London Business School and John M. Barrios of Yale School of Management outline how US deals have accelerated in the past six years. Transactions have been driven by sector-focused funds and diversified buyout groups ‘that increasingly treat accounting as part of a scalable professional-services platform’.
Abramova and Barrios suggest that outside of the Big Four – Deloitte, EY, KPMG, and PwC – the mid-large regional and national firms serving publicly listed companies can ‘support a roll-up model’, rapid expansion, and grow non-audit services.
Consolidation and concentration translates into pricing power in highly regulated, standardized activities, such as US employee benefit plan audits. ‘The accounting industry is undergoing a classic transformation: efficiency gains from integration appear alongside reduced competition and greater market power.’
In the UK mid-market, Katie Ballardie, Director, at London-based August Equity, told Preqin First Close last fall: ‘We like markets underpinned by regulatory and compliance requirements, or businesses that can support the operational challenges and needs of other businesses.’
August Equity backed UK accountancy firm AAB from 2021 to 2025 (subsequently sold to Goldman Sachs Alternatives). In August 2025, it backed law firm Higgs, based in the English Midlands.
The firm’s approach combines organic growth with buy-and-build for ‘market expansion, some internationalization, additional management support, or cross-selling opportunities’, explained Daniel Venn, Partner. At AAB, that included 16 acquisitions to expand the firm’s regional presence and grow headcount to more than 1,000.
On professional services, Ballardie said: ‘What is attractive about these markets is that they’re very fragmented. For example, there are about 9,000 legal practices in the UK.’ Partnerships have sought private equity deals to expand, compete, finance digitalization, and enable some existing partners to cash-out.
Ballardie also suggested there’s now a different context in how young professionals regard climbing the traditional partnership ladder: ‘There’s a changing risk appetite among people coming through in the sector, and it’s more difficult to access a loan to buy into a partnership. People have a different set of priorities and a different willingness for that risk and that kind of step up.’
That’s created an incentivization and succession challenge for many professional services firms – which in turn creates another opportunity for private equity.
Will new applications replace or displace routine work? Could LLMs enhance the (human) tasks and experience required for more sophisticated advice, such as M&A, and for highly regulated activities, such as audits?
Accounting services and the accountancy profession have long been hotbeds for innovation by software and technology platforms, which prompts plenty of VC interest. For example, London-based LemonEdge, a fund accounting platform for private markets, has just last week raised a $21mn series A led by Blackstone Innovations Investments and joined by BNY and Sidekick Partners.
Meanwhile, AI has not stopped some firms from supporting skills, training, and talent. For example, Grant Thornton UK plans an overhaul of its early-careers program to become the ‘destination of choice’, promising graduates and school leavers ‘market-leading pay, a digitally focused curriculum, and a clear pathway to partnership’.
Shaun Beaney is Editor of Preqin First Close. It’s quick, free, and easy to subscribe here.
Second Look is edited by Libby Fennessy, Production Editor of Preqin First Close.
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The opinions and facts included in the above do not constitute investment advice. Professional advice should be sought before making any investment or other decisions. Preqin accepts no liability for any decisions taken in relation to the above.