PwC in talks to sell Australian restructuring business to Teneo
After offloading its public sector and Indigenous consulting divisions, professional services firm PwC is now looking to sell its Australian insolvency practice, with global player Teneo in pole position.
According to reports, PwC is on the brink of selling its ‘Business Restructuring Services’ practice to Teneo, which has a global headcount in excess of 1,600 professionals but a limited footprint in Australia.
Since re-emerging as Scyne Advisory, PwC was pushed into discarding its $650 million public sector business in the wake of the firm’s government tax breach scandal, and followed that up by selling its Indigenous consulting practice to Deloitte.
Led by Melbourne-based partner Stephen Longley, PwC’s turnaround & restructuring arm sits within its Deals division, and according to the AFR has a roster of 14 partners and 75 staff. Like Longley, many of those professionals came to the firm via its purchase of PPB Advisory in 2018, which has had a significant ripple effect in the market ever since.
Remarkably, the AFR reports that Teneo, courtesy of its majority backer CVC Capital Partners (which also has a stake in Salesforce consultancy Cloudwerkx via its local private equity brand 248), was in fact chasing PwC’s entire transactions business, with country head Richard Blackburn and PwC’s Rob Silverwood said to be in discussions before PwC said the practice was off-limits.
The pair are still however conducting negotiations and fleshing out the details over the sale of PwC’s restructuring business, according to the publication, which seems confident they’re “on the cusp” of an agreement despite an unclear timeline. Responding to questions, a PwC spokesperson simply said that the firm’s deals practice was a “core part of its global platform” and not for sale.
Teneo, which describes itself as a ‘global CEO advisory’ and runs lines in management consulting, strategic communications, human capital, and risk & financial advisory, has in recent times been expanding its turnaround & restructuring offering, including through a launch in the Middle East and the pick-up of KPMG’s related assets in the Cayman and British Virgin Islands.
Teneo’s global restructuring practice was originally launched on the back of its acquisition of Deloitte’s business in the UK in 2021, a move it looks set to be repeating in Australia, with the likes of Alvarez & Marsal’s rapid march on local soil likely providing plenty of inspiration. Teneo originally set up shop in Sydney in 2018, but is yet to have established a prominent presence.
