Editorial & Advertiser disclosure

Global Banking & Finance Review® is an online platform offering news, analysis, and opinion on the latest trends, developments, and innovations in the banking and finance industry worldwide. The platform covers a diverse range of topics, including banking, insurance, investment, wealth management, fintech, and regulatory issues. The website publishes news, press releases, opinion and advertorials on various financial organizations, products and services which are commissioned from various Companies, Organizations, PR agencies, Bloggers etc. These commissioned articles are commercial in nature. This is not to be considered as financial advice and should be considered only for information purposes. It does not reflect the views or opinion of our website and is not to be considered an endorsement or a recommendation. We cannot guarantee the accuracy or applicability of any information provided with respect to your individual or personal circumstances. Please seek Professional advice from a qualified professional before making any financial decisions. We link to various third-party websites, affiliate sales networks, and to our advertising partners websites. When you view or click on certain links available on our articles, our partners may compensate us for displaying the content to you or make a purchase or fill a form. This will not incur any additional charges to you. To make things simpler for you to identity or distinguish advertised or sponsored articles or links, you may consider all articles or links hosted on our site as a commercial article placement. We will not be responsible for any loss you may suffer as a result of any omission or inaccuracy on the website.

Home > Top Stories > SIGNIFICANT GROWTH PREDICTED IN THE CONSULTANCY M&A MARKET IN 2014

SIGNIFICANT GROWTH PREDICTED IN THE CONSULTANCY M&A MARKET IN 2014

Published by Gbaf News

Posted on June 6, 2014

3 min read

Last updated: January 22, 2026

Graph depicting consultancy M&A growth trends in 2014 - Global Banking & Finance Review — Infographic illustrating the significant growth predicted in the consultancy M&A market for 2014, highlighting increases in North America, the UK, and demand for specialized sectors like healthcare.

Number of deals up 11% in the USA, 6 per cent in the UK and 1.4 per cent globally despite European decline
Specialists in big data, cyber security and healthcare are in demand

The number of deals completed globally on consultancy mergers and acquisitions was up 1.4% in 2013. This is 33.8 per cent above the 2009 low and just 11.5 per cent behind 2007’s market peak, according to Equiteq’s Global Consulting Mergers & Acquisitions Market Report 2014. This is the only publicly available information on the global consulting M&A market.

Deal volume in Europe continued to decrease 7 per cent on average since 2011, but the UK bucked the trend with an upturn of 6 per cent.. North America out-weighed Europe’s decline with an increase of 11 per cent on the number of deals completed.

Significant Growth Predicted In The Consultancy M&A Market In 2014

Significant Growth Predicted In The Consultancy M&A Market In 2014

“Last year we forecast a gentle upturn, and there is no doubt that that has come to fruition,” says Paul Collins, Managing Partner at Equiteq. “Our prediction now is that 2014 will see a significant growth in volumes and prices in the market. This is in line with the improving macro-economic climate and the general M&A market.”

The multiples used to value companies were up across all sectors in 2013, with Engineering and Media seeing an increase of 30 per cent. Split by region, the largest change was in North America, where revenue multiples were up by 40 per cent. Asia-Pacific and South America have increased steadily over the last two years – 39 per cent and 16 per cent respectively – whilst Europe and Africa have declining revenue multiples of 18 per cent and 11 per cent respectively.

“We are seeing a very significant rise in in the volume of enquiries to the business in all geographies from small and medium-size consulting businesses looking to exit through to larger consulting practices looking for help in finding and acquiring targets,” says Collins. “That said, unlike the previous boom 2005 to 2007, we do not see a dash for just any sort of consulting capacity. Certainly, there will continue to be some large ‘acquisitions of scale’ but rather buyers are looking to acquire capability that they can scale from.”

Key areas of particular interest at the moment are:

Consultancies at the ‘point of innovation’ for the major software providers e.g. HANA (the in-memory database) cloud and mobile, rather than the core ERP applications
Big Data analytical capabilities, particular in the areas of new technologies such as NoSQL, Hadoop and Data Virtualisation
Sophisticated defence and cyber-security specialists to counter the increasing level of cyber security risks
Healthcare consultancies that can navigate the challenges from increasing regulatory requirements, difficult pricing and reimbursing schemes and long drug development processes
Media specialists that can drive digital capabilities to be ‘mobile enabled’ as well as integrated into overall brand and advertising promotion

“While these are in demand specialisms, for a consultancy to be attractive to buyers, it is important to have both a market focus and a set of unique capabilities that can be leveraged across the buyer’s network,” says Collins.

A copy of Equiteq’s Global Consulting Mergers and Acquisitions Market Report 2014 can be downloaded here