BDO is exploring using private capital to merge its member firms in a push for growth amid a wave of investor interest in the professional services sector.
An informal group of senior partners at the world’s fifth-largest accounting network by revenue has been working to draw up a “house view” on taking external investment, sources said.
The research being done for BDO’s global umbrella body covered several options, including member groups taking on debt financing from a private credit firm, the people added.
Like many peers, BDO is a network of partnerships that are separately owned and managed by the senior practitioners in each country, overseen by a global umbrella body.
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Former BDO UK boss Paul Eagland is among the executives assessing investment options, but the work had not been given the status of an official project, the people said. The work started several months ago and included conversations with lawyers and investment bankers over possible structures, they added.
BDO Global said: “There is no BDO Global project as described. Our current global strategic direction is to remain independent of equity investment.”
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Last week, BDO Global announced a “strategic reset and decision to remain independent of external equity investment”, and said it was “accelerating consolidation among member firms”, without giving further details.
However, selling stakes in member firms to private equity investors was not completely off the table and the group of partners was continuing to assess all options, said people familiar with the matter.
In separate statements, BDO Global and BDO UK said they “continually explore options to drive growth for our global organisation” but would not comment on “speculation”.
One of the people close to deliberations said BDO’s move was partly prompted by rival Grant Thornton’s decision to sell a stake in its UK business to Cinven last year. Grant Thornton’s US business is also private equity-owned and the two have been on buying sprees for other sister firms, saying integrated businesses can serve international clients better.
One insider said BDO partners feel disadvantaged when their Grant Thornton counterparts can rely on private equity to help fuel investment and consolidate its network. BDO competes closely with Grant Thornton, while the Big Four firms – Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC – serve larger clients.
Many accountants including Big Four firms have in recent years sought to merge smaller country-based firms to build regional businesses to build scale.
Many mid-tier and smaller firms are doing so by tapping private equity groups, which have been scouring the sector for investment opportunities.
Opting for private credit would be a departure from the wider trend of selling stakes to private equity, although BDO’s US firm was itself sold two years ago to an employee trust financed by $1.3bn of debt from the private capital group Apollo.
That transaction marked one of the largest deployments of private capital into professional services and was scrutinised by the rest of the accounting sector, which has typically shied away from loading businesses with debt.
BDO’s US chief executive Wayne Berson in late October said there was no connection between recent lay-offs and the need to service Apollo debt.
Grant Thornton is the largest UK firm to have sold up to private equity, but has been left vying with its US sister firm in a race to buy key operations in parts of their network in other countries.
“There’s a lot of lessons from Grant Thornton and the way that they’ve gone about” their private equity deal, said one of the people familiar with BDO’s plans. “They’ve ended up with the US and the UK competing over deals, which makes no sense.”
Grant Thornton US and UK have maintained they “remain closely aligned” and “deeply respect” the network. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025
