A regional banking group
Turning a 140-branch network into a digital-first franchise
cost-to-serve reduction over 26 months
31%
Business advisory · Since 1987
Counsel for decisions that echo.
Sterling & Vance advises boards, founders and families on the decisions that define companies: growth, succession, transactions and recovery. Quietly, and properly.
Trusted by boards and owners across 14 countries — from family businesses of three generations to listed groups of fifty thousand people.
The Firm
Old-fashioned in our habits. Unfashionable in our honesty.
We are a partnership of 44 advisors in six offices, deliberately capped in size. Every engagement is led by a partner who has carried a P&L, sat on a board or signed the front page of a transaction — not handed to the most recent hire.
Our clients stay an average of eleven years. We are proud of that number, and of the fact that we have talked more clients out of deals than into them.
- 1987
- Founded
- 44
- Partners & advisors
- 11 yrs
- Average client tenure
- $9.4B
- Transaction value advised
Practice areas
Four disciplines, one standard of care
01
Strategy & Transformation
Board-level counsel on growth platforms, portfolio decisions and the operating models that make them real.
Discuss with a partner →02
Transactions & M&A
Buy-side and sell-side advisory from first thesis to integration, with sector teams that have done it before.
Discuss with a partner →03
Financial Restructuring
Calm hands in difficult moments — refinancing, capital structure and creditor strategy handled discreetly.
Discuss with a partner →04
Risk & Governance
Regulatory readiness, board effectiveness and controls that pass audit without slowing the business.
Discuss with a partner →Sectors:Financial ServicesHealthcareIndustrialsTechnologyEnergy TransitionConsumer & Retail
Selected engagements
Anonymised at client request
A family-owned industrial champion
Succession, sale and a second life under new ownership
enterprise value at exit, 2.1× the initial offer
$480M
A healthcare platform
Integration of four acquisitions into one operating company
from close to single P&L, zero clinical disruption
9 months
Insights
View the full libraryMarch 2026
The quiet M&A cycle: why 2026 favors the prepared
Deal flow is not what it was, but the quality of processes that are running is higher than any year since 2021. Notes for sponsors and founders alike.
Read the noteFebruary 2026
Governance is a growth lever, not a tax
Our annual board survey shows companies with structured governance reviews grow exit multiples by an average of 0.8×.
Read the noteJanuary 2026
Energy transition capital: crossing the uncanny valley
Between subsidy and scale sits a valley of unbankable projects. Where institutional capital is actually deploying this year.
Read the note
Edward Sterling
Senior Partner, London
Contact
The first conversation costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
Write to us with two lines about the decision in front of you. A partner — not a pipeline team — will reply within one business day.
partners@sterlingvance.example
+1 (555) 310-7700 · answered 7am–7pm ET
One Change Capital Row · London · New York · Singapore
“They told us not to sell. It cost them a fee and saved us a company.“