Grant Thornton Wants to Have a Threesome?

Who doesn’t, amirite?

Financial Times is reporting that Grant Thornton US, now flush with all that private equity cash, is thinking about acquiring Grant Thorntons UK and Ireland. It all sounds very legit but who knows, just last week the rumor was that the Brit and Irish GTs were entertaining private equity capital for themselves. Supposedly.

FT:

Under the three-way merger plan, the current partners of the UK and Irish firms would become shareholders in an international holding company led by Grant Thornton’s US private equity owners and partners. Relative valuations of the firms had yet to be discussed and the UK and Irish firms could decide to pursue different deals or none, according to people familiar with the matter.

The UK firm has already hired Rothschild to explore options for its business. Bankers have begun seeking expressions of interest from private equity firms that could provide an alternative to a merger with the US firm.

More recently, Grant Thornton Ireland hired Deutsche Bank to begin a similar exploration of its options, said people familiar with the situation.

People familiar with the matter who have big mouths said all of this is in the early discussion stage.

So last week’s private equity rumor is starting to make more sense if there’s any truth to it. The Times said GT UK was working with advisers from Rothschild and “sounding out private equity firms over a potential deal.” When asked to comment on this, a spokesperson told The Times “As all businesses do, we continually evaluate the external business and economic landscape and explore various avenues that will drive growth for our firm. This enables us to make informed decisions about what’s best for our people, our clients and our firm. We are not actively engaged in any such transaction.” The GT Ireland spokesperson said basically the same thing: “In light of ongoing developments in our profession, we are constantly exploring strategic options to assess what is best for our clients, our people, and our firm.” Both firms gave a similar statement to FT for the latest story.

“Grant Thornton US believes that it can achieve significant synergies by combining the remaining consulting and tax businesses with those of the UK and Irish firms, according to people familiar with its thinking,” said FT.

The word “DYNAMIC” does not appear a single time in the Financial Times story.