Azure Capital continues east coast push with senior KPMG recruits

Perth-based Azure Capital has poached another senior M&A professional from KPMG to support its east coast push, with Tony Kogan joining Nicholas Combes in Melbourne.

Combes, an almost two-decade-long partner at KPMG and the Big Four firm’s former national Private Equity co-lead, joined Azure Capital as a partner in June, recruited to help build up the advisory’s newly-established Melbourne office.

Alongside Azure Capital’s infrastructure advisory co-head Phil Prenc, Combes will now also be supported in growing the firm’s Victorian business by former colleague Tony Kogan, who crosses as a director after a decade in KPMG’s M&A division.

The launch of the Melbourne office – which aims to further expand Azure’s portfolio beyond its resources & mining mainstay into sectors such as advanced manufacturing, defence, and waste – follows the establishment of a base in Sydney in 2021, which in turn came on the back of a majority investment into Azure by French financial services giant Natixis two years prior.

“We’re delighted that Nick shares our collective vision of building a leading national corporate advisory,” Azure managing partner Richie Baston said of the firm’s move into the Melbourne market. “The appointment of someone of his calibre deepens our private sponsors focus and builds on the momentum generated by Adrian Arundell’s relocation to Sydney earlier this year.”

In addition to Kogan and Combes, a number of other senior leaders at Azure Capital also share a background at KPMG, including Arundell, who spent eighteen years at the firm and led its M&A practice in Perth prior to crossing to Azure and later serving as joint managing partner, and Olivia Boyne, who was appointed Azure Capital’s first female partner last year after joining from KPMG in 2016.

“Having started my career in Perth, I have always admired what the Azure team have achieved over many years, so I am thrilled to reunite with Adrian and help expand their market-leading business on the east coast,” Combes said upon joining. “The combination of Azure’s dynamic culture and professional track record instills absolute confidence to offer the best support to our clients.”

Alongside its recruits, Azure Capital itself boasts a serious consulting pedigree, having been born out of GEM Consulting in 2004 with former McKinsey & Company alumnus Mark Barnaba, Geoff Rasmussen, and Errol Levitt among its co-founders together with current deputy chair Simon Price. The firm in turn spawned Azure Consulting, which sold to Oliver Wyman in 2022.