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Ankura Consulting has started a restructuring practice in the UK, becoming the latest privately-backed group to seek to profit from advising companies struggling due to the pandemic.
The US firm, which is backed by private equity group Madison Dearborn Partners and employs around 1,500 people worldwide, has hired two partners from the Boston Consulting Group and Scott Millar, the former UK head of the company’s restructuring. AlixPartners consultant, to lead a European group in the turnaround and restructuring division.
Earlier this year, KPMG and Deloitte sold their insolvency and restructuring divisions to private equity-backed groups for a combined total of around £ 600million.
HIG Capital funded a management buyout of KPMG’s restructuring group, now renamed Interpath Advisory, while Deloitte’s insolvency and restructuring unit was sold to Teneo, the US advisory group backed by CVC Capital Partners .
Private equity investors and independent firms have tried to attract partners from the Big Four Consultants – Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC – and other large consultancies with the promise of a greater share of the profits generated. through their work, according to people in the industry.
Advisors from independent firms, the largest of which include Alvarez & Marsal and FTI Consulting, are also less likely to be barred from accepting work due to a potential conflict of interest, such as being also an auditor. from a company.
Ankura was founded in 2014 and has grown through a combination of hires and acquisitions, including the $ 470 million purchase of a litigation and forensics firm from Navigant Consulting in 2018. It offers advice to companies and investors in other areas such as data, risk and compliance. .
It already employs 150 people in its London office and plans to expand its restructuring team to 11 in the UK, either through additional hires or acquiring full teams from other companies. said Donald Featherstone, who joined BCG and was previously a restructuring partner at EY. .
Ankura will solicit the work of companies facing operational and financial challenges as well as investors such as banks and hedge funds, Featherstone said.
It will also seek to hire experts in “strategic insolvency” work, specializing in prepackage administrations and corporate voluntary agreements and believes it can fill a gap in the market by increasing the efficiency of these processes, said Featherstone.
Kevin Lavin, chief executive of Ankura, said the group will continue to internationalize its business and plan to generate 35% of its revenue outside the United States by 2025, up from 15% currently.
It will strengthen its operations in Germany and the UK by opening offices in Italy, Spain and France, he said.
The group is also set to open two offices in India next month and another in Saudi Arabia, a person briefed on its strategy said.