Baker Tilly’s Dutch arm turns to investor Inflexion for next growth chapter

24 January 2025 Consultancy.eu

The Dutch arm of Baker Tilly has agreed a strategic collaboration with Inflexion, a British private equity company. The deal is according to insiders the largest deal ever closed in the Dutch accountancy landscape.

With revenues of around €150 million, Baker Tilly ranks among the largest players in the Dutch accounting and consulting landscape. The firm’s circa 1,000 staff work mainly for large mid-sized businesses, family businesses, and organisations in the public sector.

With the arrival of Inflexion, Baker Tilly can according to chief executive Ronald Hoeksel embark on its next chapter of growth. That growth chapter will however follow a recipe than its current one. Over the past years, Baker Tilly booked strong growth – 10% per year since Covid-19 – but mostly organically. With the financial muscle of Inflexion, Baker Tilly will now also add mergers & acquisitions to its growth mix.

“In a consolidating market, autonomous growth alone is insufficient to maintain the scale required to remain attractive to customers and employees,” Hoeksel said. “With Inflexion, Baker Tilly can achieve the growth acceleration required for a stable top 10 position in the market.”

The deal comes at a time of major consolidation in the Dutch accountancy landscape, which has seen several players including Forvis Mazars, Newtone, aaff, De Jong & Laan and Moore rapidly gain market share through acquisitions or mergers.

The last inorganic move Baker Tilly closed in the local market meanwhile goes back to 2022.

Large minority stake

Inflexion has acquired a 48% stake in Baker Tilly from the 40 partners of the company. They have now re-bought a 52% stake through a newly formed cooperative entity.

Hoeksel: “The arrival of Inflexion as a new shareholder heralds a new phase for Baker Tilly. Customers can continue to count on the service they are used to from us and also benefit from our investments in product innovation and digitalisation.”

Asked why the Dutch company picked a British investor, Hoeksel noted: “Inflexion is very experienced and focused on collaboration and growth. It is very important to us that we can maintain what we are proud of and what our customers value us for: our quality, our identity, our brand and our talented and passionate people.”

Joke Hoekstra, Chair of the Supervisory Board of Baker Tilly added: “The Supervisory Board sees Inflexion as the most suitable partner for Baker Tilly. Inflexion supports the growth and development of Baker Tilly not only with capital, but also with highly relevant expertise and strategic support. This enables Baker Tilly to make more in-depth investments and to grow further, both autonomously and through acquisitions.”

Sander Ruijter, who leads Inflexion in the Benelux, emphasized that the ‘control’ of Baker Tilly will remain in the hands of the leadership team. “Our minority strategy has allowed us to structure a partnership that enables Baker Tilly to benefit from the value-add of a strategic investor, whilst keeping control within the partner group.”

In February last year, the US arm of Baker Tilly also turned to private equity for its next chapter.

More on: Baker Tilly
Europe
Company profile
Baker Tilly is not a Europe partner of Consultancy.org
Partnership information »
Partnership information

Consultancy.org works with three partnership levels: Local, Regional and Global.

Baker Tilly is a Local partner of Consultancy.org in and United States.

Upgrade or more information? Get in touch with our team for details.