Isio Group Ltd has completed its acquisition of Deloitte Total Reward and Benefits Ltd, the UK pensions advisory business of big four accountancy firm Deloitte LLP. It announced in January this year that it wants to buy the business.  

 

Isio has received approval from the Financial Conduct Authority for the deal. The acquisition of Deloitte’s pensions business adds 200 people to the team, as well as a new location in Belfast, where an existing team of 100 will be led by Mark McClintock. The combined group will have revenues of about £140m, according to Isio, which will be strengthened in areas like defined benefit consolidation and pensions transaction advisory.   

  

“This is an exciting new chapter for Isio. We are joined by an immensely talented team who will complement our existing skills and bolster our market disruptor position as a growing force in the pension advisory business,” said Andrew Coles, chief executive of Isio.  

  

“With this acquisition and addition of our new Isio colleagues, we are now in a strong position to push on and challenge the status quo in pensions advisory,” he added.  

  

Isio was itself once part of a big four firm, having been spun out of KPMG UK in a buyout by about 20 partners, backed by Exponent Private Equity, in March 2020. Isio then bought Premier Pensions Management in January 2022. 

   

The firm is confident in its financial strength and pointed to its growth since it launched three years ago. Isio's annual results for the year to 30 September 2022 showed a 33% increase in revenue from £76.5m to £101.5m and a 33% increase in Ebitda from £20.4m to £27m.   

 

Pension consultancies had been actively looking to strengthen their positions through M&A before the Covid-19 pandemic, though activity has slowed down slightly since. Marsh & McLennan, better known in the UK as Mercer, took over JLT Group for $5.6bn in early 2019. Aon was forced to abandon its $30bn purchase of key competitor WTW in March 2019 when the US Department of Justice challenged the combination in court, after the EU had already cleared the transaction. The U-turn also scuppered a deal which would have seen LCP buy Aon’s German retirement business. 

   

 

In 2018, Xafinity purchased Punter Southall’s actuarial consulting, pensions administration and investment consulting businesses for £153m and now trades as XPS Pensions Group. This was followed by Conduent selling its HR and pensions consulting arm to private equity firm HIG Capital, under which the consultancy went back to its original name, Buck Consultants. Last month, it was bought by insurance brokerage, risk management and consulting firm Arthur J. Gallagher & Co, which had announced its intention in 2022.