Dunedin, the UK mid-market private equity house, has today announced that it has made a significant investment in Alpha Financial Markets Consulting (“Alpha”) in a transaction valued at £80 million. Alpha is the leading global asset and wealth management consulting firm.
Founded in London in 2003, Alpha has grown rapidly and is now the global market leader in providing specialist consultancy services to blue chip asset and wealth managers and their third party administrators. Alpha has over 200 consultants deployed across six major financial centres (London, Paris, New York, Boston, The Hague & Luxembourg), working on behalf of more than 130 top asset and wealth management clients. Alpha currently advises three quarters of the top 50 global asset managers.
The company’s equity is widely held across its employee base and its unique culture is enhanced by this sense of shared ownership. Alpha has undergone rapid growth in the last three years, growing profits from £2.3 million in 2013 to in excess of £8 million in 2016.
This growth has been driven by strong market demand for Alpha’s unique consulting capability which combines unprecedented content and industry leading consulting expertise with detailed proprietary benchmarking data. Alpha was voted “European Consultant of the Year” at the Funds Europe Awards in December 2015.
The demand for these skill sets is ever increasing and Alpha’s strong growth trajectory is expected to continue into 2016 and beyond driven by further geographic and sector expansion and supported by strong client activity in the core areas in which Alpha specialises.
The investment from Dunedin will support Alpha’s growth plans to increase its presence in current markets, expand into new geographies and further penetrate new market segments. Alpha has an ongoing emphasis on attracting, developing and investing in the highest calibre consultants in the market and this will remain a key focus for the business. Alpha will seek to hire new talent as it expands its global presence.
Alpha’s Global Chief Executive Officer Euan Fraser commented:
“Alpha has enjoyed spectacular growth in all of our core locations over the last few years as we have established ourselves as the go-to consulting firm for our global asset manager clients. This deal with Dunedin is a fantastic recognition of everything our team has achieved.
“We have enjoyed a very good working relationship with Baird and would like to thank them for their support of the last 2 years. We are very excited to embark on a new chapter of the Alpha story with Dunedin. Our plans for the future are no less ambitious and we look forward to expanding into new geographies and sectors. We chose to work with Dunedin as we feel our respective cultures are well aligned and they have a proven track record of working with ambitious businesses in the financial services sector. Alpha is very focused on achieving even greater success in the years to come.
“We have without a doubt a hugely talented and committed consulting team and it is a pleasure to work with every one of them. Our unique blend of deep content knowledge, market leading IP and the best consulting team in the market mean that we will continue to enjoy a very strong demand for our consulting services from our global clients in the future.”
Mark Ligertwood, partner at Dunedin, who now joins the board of Alpha, said:
“In making this investment in Alpha, we are backing a team of consultants whose expertise across the asset management operating model is unrivalled. Alpha is a business with a unique culture that sets it apart from its peers and a strong senior management team that combines experience, enthusiasm and energy.
“The company has a track record of recruiting and retaining the best talent in the market, very ably led by the Global CEO, Euan Fraser, and Global CCO, Nick Baker, who have both been instrumental in the growth of the business over the past thirteen years.
“We are seeing the demand for outsourced consultancy services continue to grow in the face of operational, regulatory and cost pressures and Alpha is strongly placed to attain its position as the leading global provider of consulting services to the financial services industry. It fits very well with Dunedin’s focus on growing businesses through successful internationalisation and we are delighted to be backing the team on the next part of their journey.”
Leading the deal for Dunedin were Mark Ligertwood (Partner), Oliver Bevan (Partner) and Andrew Davidson (Associate).