Two Big Four bosses, Steve Varley, former managing partner of EY and Marissa Thomas, ex COO of PwC, have secured a multimillion pound private equity deal to set up a challenger accountancy firm
The practice will be called Unity Advisory and has secured over £200m in private equity backing from Warburg Pincus. This would position it as a powerful challenger firm in the UK market, with a possible ranking just outside the top 10 firms based on current players.
The firm will be headed up by Marissa Thomas as chief executive, previously PwC’s managing partner and chief operating officer.
Thomas left PwC in June 2024 after having stood in the senior partner leadership election to replace Kevin Ellis, but was outvoted by the partnership when the top job went to Marco Amitrano.
After the election, Thomas stepped down from the leadership board at PwC and subsequently left the firm after more than 30 years’ service.
Varley will be chairman of Unity Advisory, taking a senior leadership role when the firm launches this summer.
Until last July Varley, who had been with EY for nearly 19 years, was global vice chair for sustainability at the Big Four’s network. He stepped down as senior managing partner of EY UK&I in July 2020 after nine years leading the firm, and still remains a patron of the EY Foundation. He is also chair of law firm DWF Group and a UN special advocate for climate change. Varley started his accountancy career at Andersen, where he was a partner.
A report in the Financial Times indicated that the firm expects to start trading in June and will not offer audit services, focusing instead on tax, accounting and business advisory for mid-sized businesses.
Warburg Pincus is a major global private equity firm headquartered in New York with $82.66bn assets under management. It has had a European operation since 1983, but this will be the first time the firm has branched out into the accountancy sector in the UK.
Since inception, Warburg Pincus has invested nearly $5bn (£4bn) across the business services sector, including investments in Sotera Health, Aramark, Service Logic, and Coyote Logistics. The business services team primarily invests in companies that offer ‘differentiated and value-added solutions that we believe are well positioned to benefit by addressing shifting business needs’.