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Andersen, a tax and consulting firm formed by former employees of the now-defunct Arthur Andersen accounting company, has applied for a stock market listing in the US. This will be a test of how much interest investors have in professional services firms.
The company announced on Monday that it filed a confidential prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission but has not yet determined a valuation range or how much of the business current partners intend to sell.
Morgan Stanley has been serving as an advisor for the initial public offering, as reported earlier this year by the Financial Times. Andersen is aggressively expanding its operations to increase its attractiveness to investors.
In February, the company launched Andersen Consulting to provide additional advisory services alongside its primary tax and valuation offerings. It has also been organically creating a loose network of affiliated firms outside the US to collaborate on projects for international businesses.
Mark Vorsatz, a former tax partner at Arthur Andersen who established the firm as WTAS 23 years ago and acquired the Andersen name in 2014, mentioned in a December interview that the US division generated around $740 million in revenue for 2024.
“My goal in going public is to gain access to capital,” he stated. “Public funds are the most affordable.”
Professional services firms often have a varied history on the stock market, as investors may find it challenging to assess the value of a business that largely depends on the personal relationships of influential partners.
FTI Consulting’s shares have fallen 14% this year after a consultant, Jonathan Orszag, established a competing firm and took several senior colleagues with him, prompting FTI to increase salaries to keep others from leaving.
Several law firms that went public in the UK following a relaxation of legal market regulations have since withdrawn from the market.
Nevertheless, accounting firms are beginning to consider going public.
The private equity backers of Baker Tilly in the US anticipate exiting their investment by listing on the stock market in a few years. Meanwhile, its UK affiliate, MHA, completed an initial public offering on the UK’s Alternative Investment Market earlier this month.
Arthur Andersen’s consulting division was separated and renamed Accenture in 2000 and has become one of the sector’s standout success stories. However, Arthur Andersen collapsed just over a year later when its auditing client Enron was revealed to be involved in fraud.
The market instability created by President Donald Trump’s tariffs has dampened the overall US IPO landscape, which many investment bankers had expected to see thrive again under a Republican government.
Shares in data center operator CoreWeave, which launched the biggest tech IPO since Arm Holdings in March 2023, have increased by less than 1% since its offering price. The company had to reduce both the size and value of its offering due to fluctuating investor interest in AI. Several other major tech IPOs have been postponed following Trump’s tariff announcements.
