Financial & Professional Services

The financial services industry underpins much of the global economy. It enables the financing and administration of innovative businesses, global enterprises and public services and infrastructure. More broadly, it supports economic growth and prosperity. This highly competitive sector requires companies to be continually vigilant of shifting trends, potential challenges and ways in which their services can be more effectively delivered.

Navigating the complex and ever-changing financial services sector is a constant challenge. Firms must contend with rising customer expectations, remote work hurdles, technological advancements, global competition, and increasing regulatory pressures. It's crucial for financial services organisations to assess their current strategies to ensure they are equipped to thrive in a rapidly evolving market.

Private equity funds have become increasingly interested in the professional services sector as many firms have improved their business models to create higher quality of earnings and more recurring revenue. The sector is also attractive as many firms are highly cash generative with low CAPEX requirements. It is also a significant market in the UK, with professional and business services sectors supporting jobs and growth in the UK, making up 13% of all UK employment, 25% of all businesses and adding £190bn to the economy.

Major deals over the last few years have included spin outs of insolvency and consultancy arms of the "Big 4" accountancy firms, as well as acquisitions of major PR and communications firms. Regardless of the subsector of professional services, one popular value creation strategy is to build ‘platform’ businesses, by adding smaller firms to an existing group in the same way we’ve seen successful strategies in Insurance Broker of IFA consolidation journeys.