European Capital is to acquire a majority stake in Cordium, subject to change of control consent by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Malta Financial Services Authority. 


The majority share was purchased from Sovereign Capital, a UK-based buy-and-build specialist and Cordium’s private equity backer since November 2010. Through Sovereign’s strategy of buy & build, Cordium has become one of the largest independent regulatory compliance consultancies in the world, quadrupling its number of clients worldwide. With Sovereign’s backing Cordium has made a total of eight acquisitions, which included HedgeOp in New York, HedgeStart in London and Zodiac Advisory Services in Malta. Cordium also opened offices in Hong Kong. 

These acquisitions, integrated with efficiency and speed, have helped Cordium successfully branch out from its core service (compliance consultancy) into a variety of new, complementary service lines including tax, accountancy, and regulatory hosting. Cordium has achieved strong organic growth and has become well known for its innovative web based software solutions that allow clients to process their compliance obligations efficiently and securely. The upshot is that in four short years Cordium has gone from being a small-sized, predominantly UK-facing compliance consultancy firm, to a large global firm offering a range of complementary services around governance, risk, and compliance. As such, Cordium is now ready for the next phase of investment. 

European Capital has invested in Cordium, recognising that the company is a global business with huge potential for further growth, and especially its proprietary technology platform. 

Michel van Leeuwen, Group CEO, says: “I am delighted that Cordium has achieved strong growth in the past four years and is acknowledged as an industry leader that provides its clients with a total solution for all their governance, finance, risk and compliance needs. Fiscal and regulatory pressures are increasingly blurring the lines between these disciplines and the market is demanding holistic advice across these areas from a single, trusted global provider. We are delighted to work alongside European Capital to continue to expand our reach and service lines to meet changing client and marketplace needs.”
