Roland Berger has strengthened its restructuring and performance improvement capabilities in home market Germany with the time hire of Candidus, a 13-strong consultancy from Munich.
Founded in 2003, Candidus specialises in a range of management consulting services, including operations management, finance and restructuring. The award-winning firm works for medium-sized enterprises.
For Roland Berger, Candidus came on its radar in particular for its expertise in restructuring, turnaround and interim chief restructuring officer services – a segment that is seeing booming demand as a growing number of companies enter the zone of financial distress or even insolvency proceedings.
“We are delighted to expand our restructuring and turnaround consulting services,” said Sascha Haghani, leader of Roland Berger’s Restructuring, Performance & Transaction practice in the DACH region.
With Candidus’ team coming on board, the bolt-on also sees Roland Berger expand its network of interim chief restructuring officers, who are typically externally appointed by companies to lead them through special or crisis situations. “Our offering to take over board functions in special situations such as complex restructuring, carve-outs, post-merger integration or financial distress is experiencing significant growth,” said Haghani.
This line of business sees Roland Berger shift from its traditional strategy consultant remit, to a more in-house executive role. “In such special or crisis situations, our clients not only expect us to develop new concepts, but also to help lead and implement them,” Haghani explained.
In this segment, Roland Berger faces stiff competition from the well-known restructuring houses such as AlixPartners, Alvarez & Marsal, and FTI Consulting (trading as FTI/Andersch in Gemany), as well as local boutiques.
Roland Berger is not alone in expanding its interim chief restructuring officer service – other leading strategy consultancies are making similar moves, with McKinsey & Company, Bain & Company and Boston Consulting Group for instance all recently hiring well-known restructuring specialists in Germany.
According to a recent benchmark by the Scientific Society for Management Consulting (WGMB) among 700+ insolvency experts, Roland Berger however has remained Germany’s most reputable restructuring consultancy, ahead of (in order of ranking) AlixPartners, Alvarez & Marsal, McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group and Bain & Company.
“The competition between the large consulting firms active in the restructuring space is intensifying,” said Dietmar Fink, director of WGMB. “The recent developments in the market have created a whole new competitive situation.”
Globally, Roland Berger has approximately 3,000 employees in 50+ offices worldwide. In 2022, the firm grew by 15% to hit revenues of €850 million – the highest level since its inception in 1967 by namesake Roland Berger.
A small part of this growth was driven by inorganic growth. In August 2022, Roland Berger acquired PolarixPartner, a consultancy specialised in cost optimisation.
Sourced from Consultancy.eu