Bridgepoint and Cinven join the private equity queue for Grant Thornton

Bridgepoint and Cinven have joined the queue of buyout giants looking to lodge bids for Grant Thornton, the UK’s sixth-largest accountancy firm, which is kicking off a sale process next month.
The private equity giants are among companies running the rule over Grant Thornton UK, which is planning to sell a majority stake to outsiders, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
They added that Rothschild, the bank running the sale process, has been lobbying for a 60 per cent stake to be sold to private equity. It is likely that he remainder would be held by current employees, to give partners an incentive to stay on at the firm.
This month, it emerged that CVC, the PE giant that owns Spanish football’s La Liga, was looking to take an equity stake in Grant Thornton. Private equity rival KKR has also weighed up a bid in recent weeks.
Last year, Grant Thornton generated revenues of £654 million, up 7 per cent on the previous year. Historical profit multiples, and private equity sources, suggest that a deal would most likely value the 5,500-employee firm at about £1.5 billion.
By seeking outside investment, Grant Thornton UK will follow its sister firm in the US, which sold a 60 per cent stake to New Mountain Capital earlier this year.
It is the latest in a string of accounting firms to have invited buyout firms to buy stakes. The US arm of Baker Tilly agreed to sell a majority stake to Hellman & Friedman and Valeas, two private equity operators, in a $1 billion deal in February.
Accountancy firms are normally run as semi-autonomous partnerships, with any investment for growth having to come out of their own coffers, from which the partners are also paid. Recently, smaller firms have been seeking to raise capital from outsiders to shoulder the burden of investment.
Both Cinven and Bridgepoint have form for snapping up professional services businesses, but neither has bought an accountancy firm before. Bridgepoint previously owned the environmental consultancy ERM but sold it in 2011. In 2021, Cinven bought a majority stake in True Potential in a deal that valued the Newcastle-based wealth management business at up to £2 billion.
Bridgepoint, Cinven and Grant Thornton declined to comment.