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RPC splashes more than £3.5m on software for loss making consulting arm, LLPs reveal

RPC’s consulting arm will spend more than £3.5m on its acquisition of Cambridge software company Marriott Sinclair, purchased in July 2015.

RPC Consulting paid £1m in cash for the software firm, and promised deferred consideration of £2.6m. According to its LLP accounts, including goodwill the acquisition is worth £11.5m.

The management consultancy spin-off set up by RPC in February 2015 turned over just over £1m, according to the companies published LLP accounts. It reported a loss of £2.6m, largely attributed to staff costs as well as the cost of the acquisition.

In September last year, Legal Business revealed the start-up was targeting £50m in turnover within five years as a result of the acquisition. The company, founded by former Towers Watson global head of risk Rory O’Brien, provides management consultancy services to clients, which include global insurance firm Hiscox, but has primarily been capitalising on the software brought in by its combination.

Tyche, a software platform developed by Marriott Sinclair, tackles some of the main challenges for insurance companies responding to recent EU regulations under Solvency II – a capital requirement test introduced in 2016.

RPC Consulting managing partner Rory O’Brien said: ‘From a financial perspective we are delighted with the progress we have made in such a short period and are confident of meeting our financial expectations by the end of the year.

O’Brien (pictured) said: ‘The RPC brand has been instrumental in winning clients like Hiscox, and being independent, exclusively insurance focused and combining software, actuarial and management consulting has proved to be a winning formula. With 56 people we are now a meaningful force in the market and are now one of the largest, if not the largest, independent actuarial and software firms in the UK after just two years.’

The launch of the consulting arm has also seen the firm acquire a new office in Cambridge and open an actuarial services office in France with the hire of Stéphane Chappelier in May last year.

matthew.field@legalease.co.uk