Grant Thornton UK counted 310 professional services deals completed in 2025, against 292 in 2024, in an insight article published on 18 June 2026. The authors, Toby Hare and Oscar Dean, use the two totals to show that investor interest in the sector "continues to rise".
On the firm’s own figures that is 18 more deals in a year, a rise of about 6%. The percentage is our arithmetic; the article gives only the two totals.
What the figure says, and what it does not
The count appears in a single sentence and is not broken down. The article does not say:
- which countries it covers. The piece is about the UK market, but the sentence that carries the figure does not limit it to the UK;
- which kinds of firm count as professional services. The article discusses accountancy, legal services, specialist consulting and built environment practices, and does not say which of them are in the total;
- whether the 310 are private equity deals or all completed deals, including mergers between firms with no outside investor;
- where the count comes from, or whether it is revised when late deals are reported.
The article carries no method note. Until Grant Thornton UK publishes one, the 310 is best read as the firm’s count of completed deals in its own definition of the sector, not as a market total.
The counter is also a participant. In the same article Grant Thornton UK describes "Cinven’s majority investment in our own business in late 2024" as the largest private equity investment yet in UK accountancy, and says it has advised on several other transactions. That does not make the figure wrong. It is a reason to cite it as Grant Thornton UK’s count, with the firm’s name attached.
The article also points to where the next deals may come from. It calls legal services "the next obvious frontier" and cites the Solicitors Regulation Authority for "close to 9,000 registered law firms in the UK". That number describes the size of the legal market, not its deal flow, and the article does not connect it to the 310.
Other published counts, side by side
The table lists the counts published for the same years, with what each one says it counts. None of them uses Grant Thornton UK’s definition, so the rows are not additive and should not be compared as if they measured one market.
| Publisher | Published | Period | What is counted, in the publisher’s words or summary | Figure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grant Thornton UK | 18 June 2026 | 2025 | Professional services deals completed (scope not stated) | 310 |
| Grant Thornton UK | 18 June 2026 | 2024 | Professional services deals completed (scope not stated) | 292 |
| Accountancy Europe | 4 June 2025 | 2024 | Private equity activity in European accountancy | approximately 200 transactions |
| S&P Global Market Intelligence, as reported by ICAEW Corporate Financier | 9 April 2025 | 2024 | Global private equity and venture capital-backed investments in accountancy | around 25 deals, $6.3bn |
| Acquira Professional Services, as reported by Legal Futures | 27 February 2025 | 2024 | Deals recorded by its UK legal M&A tracker | over 150 |
| Acquira Professional Services | February 2026 | 2025 | UK legal sector transactions covered by its strategic review | over 160 |
| Acquira Professional Services, as reported by Legal Futures | 3 June 2026 | 2024 and 2025 | PE-backed legal transactions, bolt-ons included | 12 in each year |
Three things the comparison shows
The definition decides the number. For 2024, one source reports about 200 private equity transactions in European accountancy and another about 25 private equity and venture capital investments in accountancy worldwide. Geography alone cannot explain a gap of that size. Our reading is that the two sources count different things, most likely at different deal sizes, and neither publishes the threshold.
Grant Thornton UK’s count cannot be split by sector from outside. Law has its own series from Acquira, but because the Grant Thornton UK total is not broken down, there is no way to tell how many of the 310 were law firm deals, or how many involved private equity.
The direction is mostly, not always, upward. Of the series that give two consecutive years, three show a rise: Grant Thornton UK’s (292 to 310), Accountancy Europe’s (over 100 in 2023 to approximately 200 in 2024) and Acquira’s legal M&A count (over 150 in 2024, over 160 transactions covered in 2025). One is flat: Acquira’s PE-backed law deals, 12 in both 2024 and 2025.
How we use this figure
In The Tally we quote the 310 as Grant Thornton UK’s count, with its publication date, and not as a total for the UK market. Our own record of deals in Heads of Terms is built differently: it lists only deals that at least one party has announced in public, with the source for each. It will be smaller than any of the counts above, and we will say so whenever we compare the two.
Sources
- Grant Thornton UK, "Private equity is onboard – what does this mean for other advisory and consultancy firms?", 18 June 2026: grantthornton.co.uk
- Accountancy Europe, "Private equity investments in accountancy firms", 4 June 2025: accountancyeurope.eu
- ICAEW Corporate Financier, "Trendwatch: PE targets accountancy firms", 9 April 2025: icaew.com
- Legal Futures, "Private equity invests £1.2bn in the law in just five years", 27 February 2025: legalfutures.co.uk
- Legal Futures, "“The clock is ticking”: PE investment in law down but deal volume up", 3 June 2026: legalfutures.co.uk
- Acquira Professional Services, quarterly reports page (Q1 2026 review): acquiraps.co.uk
Related reading: Grant Thornton UK: Cinven and the Fairgrove deal; Kingsley Napley: 27% of 22 top-60 firms took PE.
