Palatine-backed consolidator adds a 45-year-old Cobham practice as UK accountancy roll-ups accelerate.

UK accountancy group bk plus has acquired Riches and Co Accountants, a chartered practice based in Cobham, Surrey. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

bk plus is a Walsall-headquartered accountancy group backed by private equity firm Palatine, providing accounting, audit, tax and business advisory services to SMEs and owner-managed businesses across the UK. The group now operates more than 58 offices and over 1,000 staff nationally.

Riches and Co Accountants is a chartered practice founded in 1979, offering statutory accounts, auditing, corporate and personal tax planning, VAT, payroll and start-up support to clients including some with turnover above 60 million pounds (80.7 million euros). The firm is led by senior partner Richard Bolton, who remains in place with his team at the Cobham office.

Advisors: None mentioned.

The deal fits the buy-and-build model private equity has applied across the UK's fragmented accountancy sector, where regional scale is converted into premium exit valuations. The UK accountancy market comprises roughly 40,200 firms, most with four or fewer employees, giving consolidators a long runway of bolt-on targets in a sector valued at 39.8 billion pounds.

For bk plus, Riches and Co adds 45 years of client relationships and reinforces its density across Surrey and the wider South East. For Riches and Co, joining a larger platform brings access to corporate finance, restructuring and complex tax capability that a two-partner practice could not build alone, without disturbing the client-facing team.

Timing matters here. Bolt-on targets are now fetching around 6x EBITDA, while larger platforms under private equity command 14 to 15 times, a gap that rewards consolidators for moving quickly while multiples hold.

The same dynamic is visible in Ireland, where competing consolidator Xeinadin has continued adding Dublin practices, including the recent acquisition of Hayden Brown, extending pressure on independents on both sides of the Irish Sea. Not every roll-up is proving durable, however: Xeinadin's own backer Exponent has struggled to find a buyer at a 1 billion pound asking price, a reminder that scale alone does not guarantee an exit.

For Ireland's accountancy market, the message is that consolidation is no longer a UK-only trend, and firms weighing independence face the same buy-or-be-bought calculus already reshaping practices in Surrey and beyond.

Source: International Accounting Bulletin / Accountio / Bains Watts / The Finance Story