The sale of its restructuring division to global advisory firm Teneo looks like a long denied acknowledgement by PwC that its 2018 purchase of PPB Advisory failed to deliver.
With insolvencies are storming back toward pre-COVID averages, PwC Business Restructuring Services (BRS) Unit should have been generating hefty revenues and corpulent bonuses.
Instead, the BRS unit will decamp from Barangaroo to Martin Place at the end of this month, taking their clients with them.
No wonder Teneo Australia managing director Scott McFarlane responded so enthusiastically to iNO’s queries, chief among which was how many formal appointment takers will Teneo be getting in the deal, the price of which remains undisclosed.
McFarlane told iNO that 16 of those coming across are registered liquidators though one, Simon Theobald had moved to a “casual position” and his Linked In page suggests exploring for gold in the Philippines is now Theobald’s main game.
That leaves PwC with none, which didn’t prevent a PwC spokeswoman from contesting iNO’s characterisation of the deal as an abandonment of the insolvency and restructuring sector.
But with no registered liquidators PwC has relinquished the capacity to participate in that space, other than as a referrer.
Industry insiders said PwC could well experience sellers remorse, and questioned whether Teneo could make a stand alone restructuring practice work without complimentary capabilities in property and mergers & acquisitions (M&A).
The RegLiqs heading to Teneo are: Phil Carter; Adam Colley; William Honner; Melissa Humann; Andrew Scott; Daniel Walley; Daniel Bryant; Craig Crosbie; Robert Ditrich; Martin Ford; Rebecca Gill; Stephen Longley; Mahala Hazell; Michael Owen and Derrick Vickers.
As part of the move Teneo will create a financial services division to be headed by Longley.
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