Cinven takes majority stake in Grant Thornton UK

By acquiring a majority stake in Grant Thornton UK, the private equity firm Cinven captures a professional services platform that generated an annual net revenue of £450–900M and an EBITDA of £100–200M. Officially closed on April 16, 2025, following the definitive agreement in November 2024, this LBO is the largest external private equity investment in the British accountancy sector. The financial architecture ensures the target's existing partnership base remains heavily invested alongside the incoming institutional sponsor. As a direct result of the transaction, the acquired firm distributed an exceptional £39 million bonus pool among its staff, while partners received an average individual payout of £682,000. Furthermore, the revised corporate ownership model incorporates a newly established Employee Benefit Trust arrangement to distribute shares to professionals below the partner grade. Strategically, the influx of institutional capital is allocated to finance technological upgrades, expand the advisory product suite, and accelerate the firm's consolidation strategy within a fragmented market. The transaction process required careful navigation of rising deal-related costs, which temporarily constrained the target's operating profit growth. The execution of this structural shift was closely monitored by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) to guarantee that strict auditor independence and public interest safeguards remained fully intact under the private equity ownership. To finalize this corporate integration, both parties relied on an extensive roster of tier-one advisors. The target's management and partnership were advised on M&A mechanics by Rothschild, with legal counsel provided by DLA Piper, commercial due diligence executed by LEK, and financial and tax audits managed by EY. Conversely, the acquiring financial sponsor mandated Goldman Sachs International to oversee buy-side financial engineering. Freshfields acted as lead legal counsel for the purchaser, while Oliver Wyman delivered commercial insights. Buy-side financial and operational due diligence was conducted by EY, supplemented by specialized tax structuring expertise from Deloitte.

The acquisition of Grant Thornton UK is part of the growth strategy of Cinven, which already has several external growth operations under its belt, notably Domia Group in 2024.