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Grant Thornton’s private equity-backed US business has announced plans to buy its sister firm in Australia, the latest move in a race with its UK sister firm to consolidate the world’s seventh-largest accounting network.
Grant Thornton said on Tuesday that the Australian business’s board had recommended the deal to its partners. The partnership is one of the largest in the firm’s network, with $282mn in revenues — about 3 per cent of the global total — and nearly 200 partners.
The Australian business will follow Grant Thornton member firms in France, Spain, the United Arab Emirates and a host of others that have already sold out to the US business, which is majority owned by New Mountain Capital.
The addition of the Australian partnership will create a group with 26,500 staff around the world and combined revenues of about $4.5bn.
Unlike multinational companies, global accounting firms are typically structured as a network of independent partnerships that share a common brand. The arrival of private equity in the industry in the past five years has introduced new competitive dynamics.
Grant Thornton US has been expanding aggressively, while Cinven, the London-based private equity group that controls Grant Thornton UK, has been on its own mission to buy up sister firms in parallel to the US effort, snapping up the German business in September.
The transatlantic rivalry has been brewing since Grant Thornton UK spurned a bid from the larger US firm in 2024, instead selling a majority stake to Cinven.
The consolidation strategy aims to build larger, more competitive businesses to gain an edge in pitching to multinational businesses and wring savings out of the combined firm.
The US and UK businesses have been vying to acquire some of Grant Thornton’s member firms including the Spanish and Indian firms, the FT previously reported.
Grant Thornton Australia said it had evaluated “multiple pathways to advance the firm’s ambitious strategy”, adding that the proposed transaction was the result of an extensive strategic review. Partners will vote on it this summer.
Jim Peko, chief executive of Grant Thornton US, said the proposed buyout would “accelerate growth across the Asia Pacific region” and improve how the firm worked for clients across borders. “This is exactly the kind of partnership we seek as we continue to build a differentiated platform with scale and purpose.”
Said Jahani, chief executive of Grant Thornton Australia, said the transaction was “about seizing the right growth lever” and would give his firm greater access to emerging tech capabilities and growth capital.
