Selling an insolvency or restructuring practice in the UK

You are an owner or equity-holder in a UK insolvency and restructuring practice worth between £5M and £50M in enterprise value. A specialist corporate insolvency firm. A combined restructuring and turnaround advisory practice. A personal insolvency specialist. A practice combining insolvency with broader advisory and forensic accounting capability. Most likely two to twelve insolvency practitioners (IPs) holding licences, supported by a wider professional team.

The buyer pool sits across PE consolidators (increasingly active in this segment as the sector has consolidated), larger strategic insolvency groups acquiring for capability or geographic fill-in, and accountancy firms expanding into restructuring. The market has tightened and the buyer pool has become more sophisticated.

We engage 12 to 24 months before a target exit. The longer window matters because the highest-return preparation work in insolvency — addressing IP and senior team retention, diversifying the referral book, documenting case pipeline cleanly, and demonstrating sustainable margin through the cycle — takes time.

This is not the right fit if your practice is below £5M EV, or if more than 50% of referrals come from one or two sources without engaged retention arrangements. In the latter case the readiness phase is the place to start.

Buyer diligence in UK insolvency and restructuring M&A focuses on five items.

Referral source diversity first. Insolvency practices typically depend heavily on referrer relationships — lenders, accountants, lawyers. Concentrated referral books (50%+ from one or two sources) are a flag. Diversified referral books with multiple long-tenured sources support premium pricing.

IP and senior team retention second. Insolvency practitioner licences are personal, and retention of IP holders is the central diligence concern. Buyers look at tenure, case-load allocation, restrictive covenants and post-sale lock-in arrangements.

Case pipeline and book quality third. The active case pipeline, average case size, case-mix profile, and historic case win-rate are the headline metrics. Buyers will diligence the pipeline carefully because of the cyclical nature of the sector.

Regulatory standing fourth. Recognised professional body standing, licence history, Insolvency Service correspondence, and complaints history. Clean regulatory history materially supports certainty and pricing.

Margin trajectory and cyclical positioning fifth. Buyers diligence margin through the cycle, recognising that insolvency activity is cyclical. A practice that has grown margin sustainably through different macro environments commands premium pricing.

Our six-stage process runs senior-led across the full mandate. For insolvency and restructuring, three things shape execution.

Referral source documentation and diversification is built into the readiness phase. Where concentration is high, we work with owners to broaden the book before any process.

Buyer mapping is segmented across PE consolidators in insolvency, strategic insolvency groups, and accountancy firms expanding into restructuring. Our buyer mapping covers each, supported by our proprietary technology layer.

IP and senior team engagement is structured into the process design from the start. The licence holders are meaningfully part of what the buyer is paying for. See the professional services pillar for context and specialist accounting firms for an adjacent niche.