An international Baker Tilly team has provided comprehensive financial and tax due diligence advice to Family Trust Investor (FTI) on the creation of the International Bouldering Alliance.

London, Munich, Copenhagen, 13 October 2026 - The international advisory and audit firm Baker Tilly has advised Family Trust Investor (FTI) on the creation of the International Bouldering Alliance (IBA) together with Verlinvest. As part of the establishment of the new platform, five leading bouldering brands from Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom and Denmark are being brought together under the IBA umbrella: The Climbing Hangar, Boulders, Urban Apes, Der Steinbock and Café Kraft. With a total of 39 gyms in four countries, this creates the world's largest bouldering platform by number of locations.

The combination creates an international platform with more than 40,000 members and more than 3.4 million visits per year. The IBA aims to further accelerate the growth of bouldering and, in addition to operating existing and new gyms, to develop events, competitions, digital offerings and other formats. The group is to expand initially in Europe through new locations and the acquisition of complementary operators.

The five brands will remain independent and continue to develop their established structures and communities. At the same time, shared capabilities, data and digital infrastructure are to be used to further improve the customer experience and unlock additional growth potential.

Family Trust Investor (FTI) is a private equity firm based in Munich. FTI acquires mid-sized companies as part of succession solutions and also specialises in buy-and-build concepts.

An international Baker Tilly team under the overall project responsibility of Munich partner Stefan Greger advised FTI on financial and tax due diligence:

• Financial Due Diligence: Stefan Greger (Partner, München), Felix Ptok (Manager) und Sercan Kanal (Junior Manager)
• Tax Due Diligence: Chris Denning (Partner, London) und Team von MHA (Baker Tilly UK Mitglied), sowie Pernille Pless (Partner, Kopenhagen) und Team von Baker Tilly Dänemark

This text was automatically translated from the German original.