CORPORATE FINANCE - News in Brief

Deloitte & Touche Corporate Finance has recruited two senior post-merger integration experts from Cap Gemini Ernst & Young. Belinda Richard and Angus Knowles-Cutler have joined the firm to set up an integration support service within its corporate finance and transaction services practice, supporting deals through ‘the complete deal lifecycle’. The new service will provide pre-deal advice on integration planning and practical support through transitional and implementation phases. The new team will also link in to D&T’s existing human capital service.

See www.deloitte.co.uk for information about the firm

– The lack of flotations on the stock markets is likely to continue for the foreseeable future, experts warned at a recent ICAEW corporate finance faculty conference. Neil Austin, head of new issues at KPMG, said companies looking to raise funding would need to look elsewhere or defer flotation plans for up to nine months. Austin described the current market as ‘lamentable’, adding the market was the quietest it had been for a decade. But at the same conference Richard Campin from 3i told delegates that the slowdown was a good opportunity for management buy-out and buy-in teams to make a move while prices are low. Many company boards, he said, would be glad of the chance to focus on their business. He said MBO and MBI activity was quieter in the UK than the same time last year, but added there may be good opportunities in continental Europe.

For more information go to www.icaew.co.uk/corpfinfac

– RSM Robson Rhodes in the North West has nabbed a senior corporate finance director from rival KPMG. David Wilson joins RSM from the Big Five firm where he co-ordinated the UK private company corporate finance team. At RSM he will be responsible for developing M&A and private equity services. At the same time, Andy Humphrey has joined the firm from Lloyds TSB Acquisition Finance in Leeds.

For more on the firm go to www.rsmi.co.uk.