23.01.14
Cordium makes second bolt-on acquisition in two months
Sovereign Capital, the UK private equity Buy & Build specialist, today announces that Cordium, its global compliance and regulatory services provider, has acquired HedgeStart. This is Cordium’s second bolt-on acquisition in two months and follows shortly after the acquisition of Sigma Partnership in December 2013.
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HedgeStart offers UK tax, accountancy and regulatory compliance consulting services to the investment management and securities industries. Based in London, the business has grown significantly since it was founded in 2000 and today has over 500 clients.
Sigma Partnership is a well-established, London-based provider of high-quality accounting and regulatory compliance services to FCA regulated wholesale investment firms.
The services provided by HedgeStart and Sigma Partnership complement those currently offered by Cordium – the acquisition of HedgeStart adds a highly regarded corporate and private client tax capability to its existing wide range of client services whilst also expanding Cordium’s core compliance consulting specialism. It also provides a further boost to its regulatory accounting division, while Sigma Partnership’s accountancy services add further scale to Cordium’s current provision.
Cordium has now completed six acquisitions since Sovereign’s investment began in late 2010 and alongside this it has also delivered strong organic growth. As a result, Cordium is now one of the largest independent regulatory compliance consultancies in the world, with nearly four times as many clients as at the time of Sovereign’s investment.
There is continuing strong customer demand for outsourced independent compliance consultancy as a result of increasing financial regulation and investor governance transparency requirements. These acquisitions further enhance Cordium’s position as a high-quality ‘one-stop’ service provider to regulated financial services companies.
Neil Cox, Director at Sovereign
Over recent years firms have been subjected to an avalanche of regulatory and fiscal obligations globally and the lines between compliance, regulatory accounting and tax have become blurred. We know from our clients that there is now real demand for holistic advice across these areas from a single, trusted global provider. Acquiring HedgeStart and Sigma Partnership will allow Cordium to strengthen its position in that role.
Michel van Leeuwen, Group CEO of Cordium
