Advisory firm Teneo has received fresh backing from a top Liechtensteiner buyout firm valuing it at $2.3bn (£1.73bn), in a deal that suggests the malaise afflicting the world’s largest holding companies and consultancies is not extending to more specialist or diversified firms.
LGT Capital Partners is backed by Liechtenstein’s royal family and has over $100bn in assets under management. It is not known how much the private equity manager has invested in Teneo, but the valuation marks a steep rise in the New York-headquartered firm’s acquisition-charged valuation.
The consultancy, which has divisions that span traditional management consultancy, restructuring, public relations and lobbying, was valued at just $750m as recently as 2019.
Then, dealmaking behemoth CVC Capital Partners bought a majority stake in the firm from a combination of its management and London boutique buyout shop BC Partners.
But Teneo has more than doubled its revenue since the deal, thanks largely to a flurry of acquisitions that have grown the firm’s overall footprint as well as boosted headcount in certain offices.
Its biggest scalp since the CVC injection has been its bumper deals to bring in the restructuring arms of PwC in Australia and Deloitte in the UK. It also bolstered its financial communications division in London when it snapped up PR firm Tulchan for £70m in 2023.
And its co-founder and chief executive, Paul Keary, has set his sights on doubling turnover again on a similar horizon. The group, which now has over 40 offices worldwide, has hinted it remains acquisitive in its bid for ascendancy in an increasingly competitive sector.
Brunswick Group, FTI Consulting and KKR-backed FGS Global all grown at similarly fast paces in the public relations sphere, while the likes of Alix Partners and Flint Global have emerged as major competitors to Teneo’s consultancy arm.
The group’s rapid growth is also evidence that the slowdown afoot at some of the world’s largest corporate advisories like McKinsey and WPP has not reached some of the industry’s newer players.
In advertising and communications, both London-listed WPP and US rival Omnicom have both battled to arrest a years-long slowdown in revenue sparked by financial headwinds across the global economy in 2022.
Global management consultants like McKinsey and the so-called Big Four have also been forced to deal with a similar slowdown, triggering several redundancy rounds and a slowdown in hiring.
Neither Teneo nor LGT Capital Partners responded to a request for comment.