MADRID—Independent Spanish PR consultancy Llorente & Cuenca has announced that fee income grew by 25% in 2015 to more than €30m, driven by a geographic footprint that now includes 11 offices in Latin America, along with operations in the US and Iberia.

While organic growth was 20%, acquisitions accounted for around 5% of the growth, founding partner and chairman José Antonio Llorente told the Holmes Report. Last year, Llorente & Cuenca ranked second among PR agency acquirers, making four acquisitions — EDF Communications in the US, S/A Comunicao in Brazil, and Cink and ImpossibleTellers in its Spanish home market.

The dealmaking comes after Llorente & Cuenca received outside investment from French private equity firm MBO Partenaires. The sale of 22% of the group to MBO is being used to fund acquisitions and strengthen the firm's leadership.

The results mean that in just five years, Llorente & Cuenca has doubled its income. The firm ranked 57th in the Holmes Report's 2015 Global Ranking of PR firms. "2015 was an extraordinary year for the company, crowning a decade of sustained growth in which we managed to double our income," said Llorente. "This achievement is particularly significant if we bear in mind the complex backdrop against which we have carried out our activities."

The firm reported that its 11 Latin American offices, across nine markets, now account for 65% of its fee income. The company’s permanent staff grew by 131 to 482 professionals; 46 of them were a result of the firm’s organic growth, while 85 joined as part of the acquisition operations carried out last year.