Grant Thornton is seeking a private equity investor to buy into the 100-year-old business.
The accountancy giant is exploring a potential deal by which the UK company’s audit arm would remain majority-owned by its 220 partners, the Sunday Times reported.
It comes amid a flurry of deals in the accountancy sector and just four months after Grant Thornton’s US arm agreed to offload a stake to investment firm New Mountain Capital to fund its growth plans.
Research this year showed ten of the 30 largest US accountancy firms could fall into buyout firms’ hands.
A Grant Thornton UK spokesman said the firm is ‘not actively engaged’ in a transaction with a private equity firm but said it has explored ‘various avenues that will drive growth’.
Looking ahead: Grant Thornton is exploring a potential deal by which the UK company’s audit arm would remain majority-owned by its 220 partners
Last year the UK firm’s sales jumped 7 per cent to £654m while profit soared by nearly a fifth to £146m, meaning profits per partner hit £644,000.
The company employs 5,300 people in the UK across 24 offices and has 73,000 staff across the world.
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