The acquisition of Argafin is the latest addition to PIA Group’s advisory build-up, which began in 2023 with the addition of Aquis.
Argafin brings a 40-strong team in Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve and Charleroi that supports SMEs with budgeting, reporting, profitability analysis and financial management. Together, PIA Group and Argafin aim to make that expertise more widely available and become a leading player in CFO-as-a-Service “beyond Brussels and French-speaking Belgium”.
“Entrepreneurs today need financial support that grows with their business,” says PIA Group founder and executive chairman Steven Brouckaert. “Our advisers play a central role in this every day. With Argafin, we are adding specialised CFO expertise for companies that need more intensive financial support, whether temporarily or on an ongoing basis.”
PIA links the push to what entrepreneurs face today – economic uncertainty, technological change and increasingly complex regulation – in Belgium and in its other markets alike. “Our ambition is to stand alongside entrepreneurs when important decisions need to be made,” Steven notes. “Our accountants know their clients and their businesses inside out. By combining that strong local relationship with specialised expertise, we can support them across a broader range of needs.”
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He explains that Argafin joining PIA fits this push perfectly and strengthens the group’s ambition to expand its advisory offering internationally as technology, artificial intelligence and a consolidating market increasingly require knowledge, investment and scale.
“We deliberately looked for a partner that was the right fit for Argafin,” founder Arnaud Navez reveals. “In PIA Group, we found not only the technological and financial strength we were looking for, but also a Belgian group with an entrepreneurial culture that is close to our own.”
Senior manager Maxime Herbays, who has been with Argafin for almost 11 years, is candid about the timing:
“In a tough period with some uncertainty, many challenges and more and more consolidation on the market, we have seen this opportunity with PIA as the perfect match.”
Maxime also points to PIA Advisory's specialist expertise (tax, legal, etc.) as a major part of the appeal. Argafin's people, who work in integrated teams of junior, senior and CFO professionals, gain access to additional training, knowledge sharing and development opportunities within PIA.
Above all, he explains, the AI investments that come with a bigger group are crucial in today’s world.
Expanding its CFO-as-a-Service offering
Most of the firms PIA has bought over the years were accountancy practices. After acquiring Aquis in June 2023, which added corporate finance and acquisition advisory expertise to the group, PIA set up an advisory arm to bring its specialist expertise together – including legal, VAT, wealth planning and digital transformation.
When IXO FACTO joined the group, partner Salvatore Stancampiano listed CFO-as-a-Service among the areas where, through PIA Advisory, his firm can “bring in the right specialist more quickly for complex client questions”.
This is the very problem Arnaud Navez was trying to solve when he started the firm in 2015. “We help entrepreneurs turn financial information into better decisions,” explains Arnaud. “Where is the profitability? What developments are we seeing? What resources are needed to grow further? That is what CFO-as-a-Service means to us.”
Argafin mainly serves SMEs with 10 to 100 employees that need more intensive financial support as they grow, change or professionalise. Depending on the company's needs, an Argafin CFO works alongside the business one or more days a week. Backed by a wider team, that CFO can take on responsibility within the finance function, sit in on management meetings and help the entrepreneur make important decisions.
Besides part-time CFO work, its services include cash flow, reporting and controlling, fundraising, due diligence, budgeting and profitability. In 2023, Argafin also launched ArgAccount (a digital accounting firm). All these expertise are now available to the rest of PIA’s portfolio, such as IXO FACTO.
Expertise without borders
On 5 November 2026, PIA announced the acquisition of GTK, which combines national and international tax expertise with audit and business advisory services and has a strong cross-border focus through several country desks, including in Brühl, Bornheim, Bonn, Cologne, Berlin and Hamburg.
From left to right: Marco Mandryk, Steven Brouckaert, Stefan Metzler, Guido Blesius, Adem Göksal, Frank Ginster, Manfred Klein, Ewout Brouwers, Armin Theis.
Steven explains that the two deals (Argafin and GTK) mark a shift from geographic growth to international collaboration:
“More and more entrepreneurs operate across borders and expect their adviser to be able to support them there as well. With GTK, we are adding expertise that is not only relevant in Germany, but can also create value for clients and colleagues in our other markets.”
Steven continues that, for PIA, connecting local knowledge and making it accessible across borders is an important part of international growth.
“Our ambition is for PIA Group to operate increasingly as one international group in which expertise is shared across borders,” concludes PIA Group CEO Tom Verhaegen.
“Our strength remains local, close to the entrepreneur, but knowledge does not need to stop at national borders. What we build in Belgium should also be relevant to clients in Germany, the Netherlands or Luxembourg, and vice versa.”
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