Advisory Firms Turn to the Market to Bolster their Restructuring Outfits
Some interesting developments in the Consulting market this month with some major moves happening within the restructuring space. The likes of AlixPartners and FTI Consulting have been very busy with growing their restructuring & turnaround capabilities, with McKinsey’s once-established RTS practice being a significant pool for senior talent.
In addition to the developments we are seeing in restructuring, the broader consulting market has been hugely affected by a slowdown in attrition. This, partnered with continuing economic uncertainty, has led to reduced hiring slots and increased under-utilisation of junior- to mid-senior level consultants.
People Moves
Ex-KPMG UK Chairman Bill Michael has joined Novatus Global, a London-based risk, regulation and ESG consultancy, as Head of Strategy and a member of its board. Michael led KPMG UK from 2017 until February 2021.
Daniel Evers, a former Capgemini Invent Director and Head of Supply Chain Transformation, has joined EY as a Partner in Germany. He joins to support further growth of their Supply Chain & Operations practice.
Jennifer Fountain has joined Accenture as a Managing Director in their London Office, working in their Private Equity practice. She leaves Alvarez & Marsal after nearly 4 years at the firm.
Matthew Johnston leaves McKinsey to join FTI Consulting to lead their EMEA Turnaround team. With a wealth of experience from McKinsey, KPMG, and AlixPartners, Matthew will be an asset to the business in supporting boards and senior management teams to help manage critical restructurings and accelerated turnarounds and transformations.
Richard Hudson has joined Vitruvian Partners as a Senior Director and Operating Executive in their Value Add Team. Prior to Vitruvian, Richard was a Senior Partner in McKinsey’s Transformation and Restructuring practice.
Eight Advisory has bolstered its Partner team in the Netherlands with the hire of Boudewijn Wellink to lead the firm’s Restructuring & Turnaround practice. Boudewijn has 25+ years experience in the restructuring and corporate finance space.
Deloitte has strengthened their Private Equity capabilities with the hire of two new Partners. Anne-Marie Laing, a former Managing Director at AlixPartners, will lead the Private Equity Strategy and M&A services, whilst ex-PwC Partner Victoria Kerrigan was appointed to the firm’s financial advisory PE Deals team.
Alvarez & Marsal has expanded its Corporate Finance practice in the UK with seven senior hires from KPMG. Al-Munther Sultan has been appointed as a Managing Director of Healthcare and Life Sciences, while Claire Edwards, Sarah Bannister, Patrick Simpson and James Gaffney join as Directors. Sarah Bowen and Hannah Halstead also arrive as Associate Directors.
Strategy&’s former Director of Thought Leadership in Oil & Gas and Low Carbon Adrian Del Maestro has joined AECOM as a Vice President for Global Energy Advisory. He will bring over 25 years of experience to the role, with deep expertise in trends such as low carbon, electric vehicles and digitisation in the Energy sector.
Roel Hoyer has left his position as a Partner at McKinsey in the Netherlands to join IceLake Capital as an Investment Director. Ice Lake Capital is a Private Equity fund with a focus on buyouts of medium-sized companies in the BeNeLux.
PwC has added to its Deals practice with the appointment of Daniel Cameron as a Partner to lead the firm’s digital procurement capability. At PwC, Dan is part of the firm’s Value Creation and Realisation practice, and will lead on third party-related transformation programmes for enterprise and mid-market clients.
Similarly, Douglas Pickles has joined PwC’s Value Creation & Proposition practice as a Director, supporting clients at the cross section of procurement and capital projects. Douglas joins from Kearney, where he was the UK Lead for Prokura.
Prakash Hariharan, Lynette Gracias and Venkatesh Subramoniam join EY’s UK Managed Services practice as it looks to help clients improve head office functions. Their expertise is set to help EY support their clients unlock value through head office functions, including tax, risk, compliance and finance, by combining experience, talent and technology.
AlixPartners has strengthened its Turnaround and Restructuring team in the UK with Julian Gething, appointed as a Managing Director. Prior to joining AlixPartners, Gething was a Partner at McKinsey & Co. He also spent time in senior roles with THM Partners and Arthur Anderson. During that time, he served as CRO of Survitec Group, and for Endeka Ceramics & Zircosil Holdings.
FTI in the UK has bolstered their Tax practice by hiring infrastructure funds and M&A tax expert Angus Wilson (Ex-KPMG) as a Senior Managing Director. Within the practice, he will predominantly focus on their Corporate Finance & Restructuring segment.
Audrey Hughes-Jones joins PA Consulting as a Partner in its UK Financial Services practice. She will work with clients to help them unlock value in their transformation programmes through intelligent applications of data, and digital & enterprise agility. Prior to joining PA, Audrey was a Director at EY focused on Transformation & Performance Improvement.
The Manchester and London offices of BDO have welcomed new Partners, Zsolt Szelecki and Claire Frangou, as the firm looks to further support clients with financial and organisational transformations. Claire joins the firm in Manchester as an M&A Partner in the Corporate Finance team, and Zsolt joins BDO in London as Partner and the Head of People Advisory Services.
AlixPartners has bolstered its senior team in Germany with two Partners: Arnt-Philipp Hein and Constanze Freienstein. Arnt-Philipp Hein (ex-McKinsey) joins their Automotive practice, and brings extensive experience in the sector, with a focus on e-mobility, car-sharing, alternative fuels, and charging infrastructure. Constanze Freienstein joins the Retail & Consumer practice, bringing her extensive industry experience; over the past 25 years, she has worked at Lands’ End, Hudson’s Bay, McArthurGlen Group, Procter & Gamble and Metro.
Former Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin has joined the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, a London-based policy think tank and consultancy, as a strategic advisor. The former leader of Finland announced her decision to join the Tony Blair Institute after resigning from her position as a Member of Parliament.
Alvarez & Marsal furthers its coverage of the Australian professional services market with the hire of George Collins. He has been tasked with heading up the firm’s Global Transactions Analytics practice out of Melbourne. George was formerly at KPMG, where A&M have had great success in mining for senior talent in the region.
People Promotions
Pia Tischhauser, a Managing Director and Senior Partner based in BCG’s Zurich office, has been appointed as the new Chief Alumni Officer. She has previously held numerous global leadership positions, including six years as an elected member of the Executive Committee and Head of the Insurance practice group.
PA Consulting has appointed Christian Norris as its new Chief Executive Officer, taking over from Ken Toombs. Toombs’ departure follows an announcement by the Jacobs Group, the US-based company which owns a majority stake in PA Consulting, where they showcased plans to split itself in two.
Finncap Cavendish has promoted Ben Goldring from Director to Partner. He will continue to head up the Financial Services practice, focusing on wealth, insurance, payments and fintech.
Mazars has appointed four new Partners within its Dutch business: Achmed Bouazza, Janine van Muijlwijk, Sven van der Worp and Lars Zuur. They will all be strengthening the firm’s Audit & Assurance practice, with most specialising in third-party assurance.
Strategy& has boosted its Partner team in France with the appointment of five new members: Anna Cohen, Jonathan Heasman, Guillaume Jean, Laurent Magne, and Pierre-Antoine Balu. Cohen focuses on digital strategies and transformations within the TMT, Energy, and Healthcare spaces. Heasman continues his focus in the Industrial Manufacturing, Energy and Aerospace sectors. Guillaume Jean works with French and international clients on growth strategy projects, as well as on transformation programs. Magne is a specialist in M&A operations – and involved in complex carve-out operations, spin-offs, preparation for operational takeover, post-acquisition integration and complex transformations. Finally, Pierre-Antoine Balu is a specialist in organisational transformation work.
Kearney has promoted Eef-Jan den Hartog and Elisabeth Philipse to Partner in their Amsterdam office. Eef-Jan has been with Kearney since 2018, after holding various supply chain leadership roles at consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble. Elisabeth will continue her work in the Consumer Products & Retail practice, where she specialises in helping clients with growth strategy, revenue management, mergers & acquisitions, and procurement.
EY has promoted Yannick Grécourt as the new Managing Partner of its FSO division in Belgium. Based in Brussels, Yannick Grécourt is currently the Consulting and Digital Services leader for the firm’s Belgian Financial Services business. He now steps up to lead EY’s full offering to their Financial Services clients.
Boston Consulting Group subsidiary Inverto has appointed three new Managing Directors: Simone Hilbring, Tobias Antefelt, and Patrice Maheo. Promoted to Managing Director in the firm’s Cologne office, Simone Hilbring is an expert in the Retail and Consumer sector. Tobias has been promoted to Managing Director in their Stockholm office, bringing over 17 years of consulting industry experience, with expertise in cost reduction, procurement and working capital management projects. Finally, in Paris, Patrice Maheo has joined the management team as the office’s second Managing Director. Maheo has over 25 years of experience leading procurement transformation projects.
Market Intelligence
Our very own Managing Partner, James O’Dowd has featured in both Financial News and Financial Times for his insights on low attrition rates and under-utilisation of staff within consulting firms.
PwC UK have announced that, despite overall revenue growth, their annual Partner payout is set to decline from 2022’s record high, emblematic of the difficult political and economic circumstances over the last year.
According to new research by KPMG, investments in the UK’s fintech sector decreased by 57% between 2022 and 2023. High inflation, rising interest rates, geopolitical tensions, and tech sector challenges (mostly depressed valuations and a continued lack of exits) have all been suggested as key factors behind this drop.
Bridgepoint, an asset fund manager with £33bn in assets, will buy Energy Capital Partners for an initial £835m including debt, strengthening its position within mid-market asset investments.
Figures released last week show that Deloitte has extended its lead as the largest of the Big Four professional services firms, with revenue of $64.9bn over the last year, an increase of 15% to the year prior. EY announced revenue of just under $50bn, with PwC and KPMG expected to publish figures in the coming months.
777 Partners, a Miami-based Private Equity firm with $12bn worth of assets, are close to agreeing a full takeover of Everton Football Club. The deal is pending until all the Premier League requirements are met, which could possibly take several months to complete.
As a result of lower demand and falling staff attrition rates, Big Four firm KPMG UK is set to cut up to 125 jobs in its consulting business as it looks to combat the current economic headwinds.
Global professional services company Accenture has acquired Anser Advisory, an advisory and management company for infrastructure projects in the United States. The deal strengthens Accenture’s capital project capabilities, furthering their ability to support organisations to complete large, long-term infrastructure projects more predictably and efficiently.
Sixth Street-backed Legends Hospitality is in talks with a group of private credit firms led by Ares Management Corporation and KKR to finance its potential acquisition of venue and events management company ASM Global.
Boston Consulting Group and Anthropic, an AI safety and research company, this month announced a new strategic collaboration that will help BCG clients harness frontier AI technology ethically and effectively. Through this alliance, BCG consultants and clients will have direct access to Anthropic’s Claude 2, which should help clients improve productivity and innovate through the adoption of safer, more reliable AI.
Cinven announces that it has agreed to sell PLANASA, a global leader in the agri-tech sector, to strategic buyer EW Group. Planasa operates in more than 25 countries and supplies customers from its 13 nursery facilities across Europe, Africa, the Americas and Asia.
Accenture has acquired Nautilus Consulting, a leading digital healthcare consultancy in the UK that specialises in Electronic Patient Record (EPR) solutions. The acquisition will enhance Accenture’s digital transformation, implementation, and optimisation capabilities across the UK and global Healthcare space.
KPMG halves pay for US Partners on gardening leave amid the Big Four war for talent. Partners in the US have been told their gardening leave pay will be cut by 50% if they leave for a rival firm.