Lantern Group completes acquisition of Ascent

Lantern Group has announced the successful completion of its acquisition of Ascent, one of the UK’s largest specialist debt recovery law firms, from Irwin Mitchell, following regulatory and shareholder approval.

The completion of the transaction marks a significant milestone in Lantern Group’s growth strategy and further expands its UK financial services portfolio, with Ascent joining Lantern Debt Recovery Services and Sonex as part of the Group’s family of specialist businesses.

As previously confirmed, Ascent will operate as an independent sister company within the Lantern Group structure. The business will retain its people, strategy, technology, operations, and Manchester headquarters, ensuring continuity for clients, partners and colleagues.

As part of the completed transition, Hayley Owen, formerly Ascent’s Chief Operating Officer, has formally assumed the role of Managing Director.

With the transaction now complete, Ascent’s regulatory permissions, client delivery models and operational independence remain unchanged. Clients and partners across Ascent, Lantern and Sonex will experience no disruption to services, engagement frameworks or regulatory arrangements.

The completed acquisition provides a stable and collaborative platform to explore future diversification of capabilities while preserving each business’s distinct identity and specialist focus.

Hayley Owen, Managing Director of Ascent, said “The completion of our acquisition by Lantern Group marks an important milestone for Ascent and a strong foundation for our future growth. Lantern’s deep sector expertise, longterm investment approach and shared values around ethical, customerfirst outcomes align closely with our own. We retain our independence, our people and our purpose, while gaining the scale and support of a group that understands and champions specialist financial services businesses.”