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Korn Ferry$KFY · filed: grew revenue 6.4% in FY2026 to $2.9BNew shipTrillion Score 535Fall Risk MediumNext year $2.4B–$3.6B sealedCheck ▾Close ▴
What Korn Ferry filed
Grew revenue 6.4% in FY2026 to $2.9 billion, operating margin 12.8% against a -1.8% median for employment agencies, equity 48.5% of assets, and dividend per share up 5 years running. Every figure links to the filing it came from on Korn Ferry’s card. New ship: no warning signs. Trillion Score 535, #5 of 21 in its field; Fall Risk Medium (how it is measured).
What the house said in advance
Revenue for the fiscal year after 2026-04-30 between $2.4B and $3.6B, an 80% range sealed on 27 Sept 2026 · receipt #390f61 · graded in public by the revenue in Korn Ferry’s next annual report.
Figures as filed with the SEC. Ranges, scores and boats are statistical descriptions of past filings, not ratings or recommendations. Reporting, not advice.
In plain words
Korn Ferry doubled its workforce and shifted toward recurring RPO revenue, pricing integration risk into an **11.2x** forward multiple.
$1.1 billion
acquisition of AMS
15,000
consultants to its global workforce and
$1.4 billion
in annual revenue
200,000
placements annually for names including Unilever
Korn Ferry completed its $1.1 billion acquisition of AMS, the Amsterdam-based recruitment process outsourcing firm, adding 15,000 consultants to its global workforce and $1.4 billion in annual revenue. The deal, announced in October and closed ahead of schedule, merges Korn Ferry's executive search and organizational consulting with AMS's high-volume contractor placement infrastructure across 30 countries. AMS operates embedded recruitment teams inside Fortune 500 clients, managing 200,000 placements annually for names including Unilever, Shell, and HSBC.
The transaction fundamentally shifts Korn Ferry's revenue mix. Executive search and leadership advisory generated 62% of its $2.7 billion in trailing revenue; AMS tilts the firm toward recurring RPO contracts with 18-36 month durations and 8-12% operating margins, lower than Korn Ferry's traditional 14-16% but far stickier. AMS's EBITDA of $140 million implies the deal priced at 7.9x trailing earnings, a 15% discount to recent HR tech M&A comps. Korn Ferry funded the purchase with $600 million in new term debt and $500 million in cash, lifting net leverage to 2.1x EBITDA from 0.4x pre-deal.
The combination creates the only firm operating across executive search, mid-level RPO, and contractor logistics at global scale. Korn Ferry's 9,000 consultants previously avoided high-volume hiring; AMS's clients now gain access to succession planning and leadership development services they previously purchased separately. Cross-sell potential centers on 120 shared multinational accounts where Korn Ferry handles C-suite searches while AMS manages frontline hiring. The firm projects $75 million in annual cost synergies by fiscal 2027, mostly from duplicate back-office systems and overlapping European real estate. Revenue synergies remain unguided, but AMS's 23% client retention rate and $12 million average account size suggest meaningful upsell runway.
Allocators should watch Korn Ferry's fiscal Q4 2025 earnings in late May, where management will detail integration milestones and revised margin guidance. The firm's ability to retain AMS's 18 largest clients—collectively $420 million in annual billings—will clarify whether the RPO model survives ownership by a legacy search firm. Debt covenants require net leverage below 3.0x by June 2026, achievable if EBITDA holds but vulnerable if Europe's contractor volumes soften. Competitive response from Randstad and Adecco, both exploring similar RPO bolt-ons, could arrive within six months.
Korn Ferry now touches $4.1 billion in annual talent spend, ten times its size in 2015. The firm's equity trades at 11.2x forward earnings, in line with diversified staffing peers but 30% below pure-play executive search multiples. The discount assumes integration risk; the upside assumes AMS's contracts prove as sticky as their 94% gross retention rate suggests.
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For the principal
The deal shifts $1.4B in recurring contractor revenue into a historically search-focused firm—watch Q4 retention metrics closely.
For the operator
AMS's $12M average account size and 23% retention rate create cross-sell leverage; debt covenants tighten if Europe softens.
For the house
Named accounts in European staffing exposure should review positioning; leverage jump to 2.1x flags integration execution risk through mid-2026.
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