Alvarez & Marsal hires raft of M&A consultants from KPMG, launches corporate transactions group

Alvarez & Marsal, a global management consulting firm, on Thursday announced the hiring of a team of mergers & acquisitions consultants from KPMG to launch its new corporate transactions group (CTG).

The new US practice combines Alvarez & Marsal’s existing corporate M&A services with expertise in finance and accounting, tax and operational due diligence, and integration and separation transactions.

The firm said the CTG practice will offer the benefit of standing free from the audit conflicts and internal complexities of the Big Four accountancies. Alvarez & Marsal told the Financial Times that it expects to hire hundreds of partners and staff from the Big Four and other rivals to expand its corporate M&A work.

Private equity deals currently account for close to 90% of Alvarez & Marsal’s deal advisory work. Transaction work accounts for a little over a third of the firm’s business, with the rest of the 9,000-person business devoted to restructuring and performance management consulting.

The new CTG practice will be led by managing director Preston Parker, former KPMG Global leader for the deal advisory and strategy integration and separation practice. Joining Parker are managing director Jeff Wilson, former KPMG US national leader for the transaction execution practice, and managing director Marcos Cortes, former managing director with KPMG’s healthcare and life sciences strategy practice.

Additional CTG hires from KPMG include Amir Zhumatov, senior director, and Dan Kogan, director.

The practice’s talent bench also includes financial and accounting due diligence professionals such as Kevin Martin, former leader of KPMG’s consumer and retail deal advisory practice, who joins as a managing director.

Alvarez & Marsal will also combine an existing team of over 20 M&A integration and separation professionals into CTG – including managing directors Colin Harvey, Nancy Tseng, and Mat Hency – to provide immediate scale.

Paul Aversano, managing director and leader of the 1,000-person global transaction advisory group, providing firm oversight for CTG, said, “A&M’s history dictates that when we see a problem in the marketplace, we build a solution. As the Big Four face advisory businesses challenges around the world, A&M stands apart as the future of professional services with a unique, global, independent platform, to launch a new solution with CTG. We are here to challenge and disrupt what is, in our opinion, a marketplace where corporates are being underserved by the Big Four and traditional management consulting firms.”