Alantra advises Avedon Capital Partners on its investment in a leading Dutch accountancy firm created by the merger of Koenen & Co, HLB Witlox Van den Boomen and PKF Wallast

Oct 2023

Buy-side advisory

Netherlands – Leading accountancy and advisory firms HLB Witlox Van den Boomen, Koenen en Co and PKF Wallast have merged to establish a top 10 consultancy and accountancy organization in the Netherlands.

This new organization has a network of 15 offices in the economic growth regions of the Southern and Western Netherlands, combined turnover of €130 million and employs more than 1,100 people. In 2023, the three organizations will continue to operate independently under their own names. In early 2024, they will go public as a new, joint brand.

The merger was achieved in two phases. In July, the merger of HLB Witlox van den Boomen and Koenen & Co and the investment of Avedon Capital Partners (“Avedon”) in the combined business was announced. Alantra provided M&A and debt advisory services to Avedon to help Avedon establish its investment strategy for the accountancy sector and to successfully secure a funding package to support the investments. Following this initial transaction, in September the intention to merge PKF Wallast with Koenen & Co and HLB Witlox van den Boomen was announced.

The three firms are highly complementary. HLB Witlox Van den Boomen is a full-service financial services provider. Its team of more than 600 employees provide entrepreneurs with high-quality advice in the field of accountancy, tax, legal, corporate finance and HR issues. Founded in 1982, Koenen & Co is a large, professional full-service finance and consultancy organization with over 250 employees, 11 partners and a considerable market share in Limburg and South-East Brabant. PKF Wallast provides businesses with integrated financial, tax and corporate legal services. Its team of 250 people operate from five locations in the Netherlands.

Alantra is a leading advisor to investors and businesses in the accounting services sector. It provided an integrated, one team approach encompassing local market experts, global professional services specialists and debt advisory. This is our tenth accounting services transaction over the last three years and we see no slowdown in momentum with ongoing interest in high-quality firms from both private equity and strategic acquirers.

Lodewijk Sodderland, Managing Director Alantra Netherlands, and Andrew Lynn, Managing Director in the firm’s global debt advisory team based in the UK, led the team advising Avedon, with support from the Business Services team.

Lodewijk Sodderland, Managing Director Alantra Netherlands, said, “The accounting services industry is rapidly consolidating in order to best address the increasing scarcity of talent, and to create the scale needed to invest efficiently in digitisation. The combined firm will benefit hugely from Avedon’s support and experience in value creation.”   Andrew Lynn, Managing Director, UK Debt Advisory, said, “There was strong competition for the debt mandate driven by a high level of interest for business services credit opportunities, a growing understanding of the accountancy sector investment thesis and the opportunity to support a high quality platform backed by Avedon.”