Dechert’s 2025 Financial Services M&A Highlights

2025 showed strong deal momentum in the financial services industry despite continuing economic and geopolitical uncertainty. Once again, Dechert remained highly active in advising on financial services M&A transactions.

Dechert’s cross-border, cross-disciplinary team guided clients on a diverse range of financial services M&A transactions, helping many leading industry participants successfully execute their mission-critical efforts to consolidate, innovate, expand their services and capitalize on opportunities in a resilient but selective deal market underpinned by persistent macro and geopolitical cross-currents.

A selection of highlights from the year

• Asset management consolidations: Dechert advised Motley Fool Wealth Management, a registered investment advisor managing over US$1.5 billion in client assets, on its pending transaction to join Apollon Wealth Management, LLC.
• Services business investments: Dechert advised Moss Adams on its strategic merger with Baker Tilly, creating the sixth-largest advisory CPA firm in the U.S. 
• Strategic financial services M&A: Dechert advised Industry Ventures, a leading venture capital platform that oversees approximately US$7 billion in assets under supervision, on its acquisition by the Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. .
• Private credit platforms: Dechert advised Brightwood Capital Advisors, LLC, a private credit firm with more than US$6 billion in AUM, on the assumption of the management of two private credit funds previously overseen by Capital Dynamics.
• Private equity and fintech transactions: Dechert advised Lovell Minnick Partners, a private equity firm, on a strategic investment in Valor PayTech, a fast-growing provider of point-of-sale software and payment technology; and on the acquisition of a majority stake in Merchant Industry, LLC, a New York-based provider of payment processing solutions.
• Speciality finance and real estate: Dechert advised Barings, one of the world’s leading investment managers, on its acquisition of Artemis Real Estate Partners, a US$11+ billion real estate investment firm. 

Please read the 2025 Financial Services M&A Highlights brochure for an in-depth overview of last year's notable body of work.