Private equity-backed advisory firm acquires specialist music boutique Advisory Mid-tier accountancy and advisory firm BKL has snapped up a smaller counterpart in its latest acquisition, aiming to strengthen its focus on the music, media, and entertainment sector in London. City-based BKL, which offers tax, accounting, and business advisory services, has snapped up specialist music accountancy firm Dales Evans, as it “continues to expand its [...]
Legora eyes $10bn funding valuation four months after last raise AI AI legal tech firm Legora is eyeing a new funding round as it aims for a $10bn valuation, nearly double the $5.6bn it raised in April. The Stockholm-based startup, which creates AI tools for law and professional services firms and corporate in-house legal teams to draft and review documents, is reportedly in the early stages of [...]
AI gold rush leaves accountancy firms exposed to costly cyberattacks AI Accountancy firms are pouring millions of pounds into AI, but the industry forgot to modernise security systems and is leaving itself exposed to costly cyberattacks. According to a report by software company Fastly, shared with City AM, more than 75 per cent of businesses that identified as AI-first, meaning they had integrated AI into core [...]
Exclusive: Sydney Opera House and Gherkin designer Arup loses finance chief August 5, 2026 The design company behind the Sydney Opera House and Gherkin has been left without a finance chief after the former executive in the role quietly left the business, City AM has learned. Robert Boardman, who spent nearly seven years as chief financial officer at the blue-chip engineering, design, and professional services consultancy, resigned as a [...]
Offshore legal giant Mourant eyes expansion with private equity boost August 4, 2026 Offshore legal heavyweight Mourant is the latest professional services firm to take on private equity investment after MML Capital made a minority investment in the firm. Mourant, an offshore firm that advises on the laws of the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Guernsey, Jersey, and Luxembourg for the financial industry and institutional investors, has taken [...]
Global advisory giant Brunswick explores capital raise August 3, 2026 City PR and advisory heavyweight Brunswick is reportedly weighing up a fresh cash injection via a sale of a stake in the firm, setting the stage for a punchy windfall for its top executives. Five years after securing a £500m valuation following the sale of a 10.7 per cent stake to US private bank BDT [...]
Grant Thornton set for $5bn CBIZ buyout in landmark accountancy deal July 29, 2026 Grant Thornton is set to buy New York-listed management consulting firm CBIZ in a proposed $5bn deal, one of the largest transactions of its kind in the accountancy sector, creating the fifth-largest professional services firm in the US. CBIZ, the only audit firm listed on the US stock market, is set to be acquired by [...]
PwC thought leadership reports ‘100 per cent AI generated’ July 29, 2026 The Big Four giant PwC has been found to have published four ‘thought leadership’ reports that show a pattern of irresponsible AI usage, including hallucinated citations and fabricated claims. A probe by GPTZero, a company that makes AI detection software, focused on four reports published between 2024 and 2026 by PwC Middle East and found [...]
‘You can blame us’: The firm that sparked accountancy private equity gold rush July 29, 2026 Blick Rothenberg’s chief executive, Nimesh Shah, told City AM the firm ‘killed’ the traditional partnership model a decade ago, and now stands as the blueprint that every mid-tier accountancy competitor is trying to emulate. City-based Blick Rothenberg is widely recognised as the first major UK accountancy firm to receive private equity backing, after HgCapital invested [...]
Regulator flags BDO’s ‘unacceptable’ audit issues for fifth year in a row July 22, 2026 Accountancy giant BDO has been flagged for an “unacceptable” standard of audit quality by the watchdog for a fifth year in a row. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) said in its yearly audit quality report that BDO’s overall audit quality fell below expected standards and “has received unsatisfactory results from regulatory inspections” consistently for five [...]