RSM’s US and UK bosses have pitched sister firms across the global accounting network on joining a new US-led partnership as an alternative to taking money from private equity, after inking a deal to integrate their operations.
The partnership, announced on Thursday, will allow greater cross-border investment and help the firms mount a stronger challenge to rivals, Brian Becker and Rob Donaldson, chief executives of the RSM US and RSM UK respectively, said.
RSM Ireland joined up with the UK business in 2023 and joins this latest tie up with the US.
The transatlantic agreement falls short of the full financial merger originally floated last year but will create a new leadership structure covering the US and UK firms and dictating partner pay, with Becker as chief executive.
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The structure was designed to allow other member firms in the global network to join, at a time when rival networks such as Grant Thornton, KPMG and BDO are also combining member firms.
Becker said: “A lot of [member firms] need the capital to build consulting, advisory or other services, and we have the capital together to do all the investments that we need.”
Donaldson added: “We don’t want them to think this is some closed arrangement that they can’t participate in if they wish. The door is open. It is an alternative to outside investment.”
RSM is the world’s sixth-largest accounting network by revenue, and the transatlantic deal brings together the US business, which had $4 billion in revenue in the year to April and nearly 17,000 employees, with the UK firm’s almost £600 million in revenue and 5,400 staff.
The US has already combined with RSM’s operations in Canada and the UK business acquired RSM Ireland in 2023.
The new partnership will account for about half the $10 billion in annual revenue reported by the RSM International network.
After the transatlantic merger talks were announced, regulators emphasised the need to keep local control of sensitive audit operations. The looser structure finalised last week addresses this and also avoids drawing UK partners into the labyrinthine US tax system.
The combination was codenamed Project Bamboo, because the plant is “fast-growing, flexible and resilient”, according to a person familiar with the process.
The combined leadership board will dictate compensation and profit-sharing arrangements for partners on both sides of the Atlantic and direct funds for new investments such as in AI-led upgrades to RSM’s audit platform.
“The big picture objective is to drive more collaboration, better client experience and more talent opportunity,” Donaldson said. Sister firms that remain independent would also benefit from a faster-growing US-UK business that would refer work within the network, he said.
RSM member firms have resisted selling a stake to private equity, even as financial investors increasingly snap up accounting firms in networks outside the Big Four.
However, neither Becker nor Donaldson ruled out taking external capital in the future.
“There’s been more change in our profession in the last five years than in the previous 25 years, so who knows what happens next?” Donaldson said, adding a big acquisition could require a private equity partner.
Becker said a stock market flotation could one day be an option. “If the ultimate endgame is our industry goes to the public markets, we have that opportunity to do the same thing,” he said. “It comes with its share of challenges. I don’t see the benefit as of yet, but the important thing is we are keeping our options open.” --Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025
