PKF’s Brisbane practice reportedly set to join start-up Horizon Nexus Partners

Accounting and advisory start-up Horizon Nexus Partners is in the process of poaching PKF’s Brisbane practice according to the AFR, a bold move which would send a clear signal to the market.

Backed by private equity firm BGH Capital and fast assembling a team of highly experienced professionals, Horizon Nexus Partners hardly feels like your average start-up, expressing its ambitions to create a national mid-tier competitor.

Led by former PwC partners Rob Silverwood and Sanjiv Jeraj, Horizon Nexus Partners now looks like it could be on the verge of making an early market splash, with the AFR reporting that the new venture has signed up the Brisbane practice of PKF.

Nationally, PKF generates close to $200 million in revenues – recently slipping out of the top ten of the AFR’s annual top 100 accounting list at the expense of William Buck – with the publication suggesting the firm’s Brisbane branch contributes around ten percent of the overall take, or between $15 million to $20 million in annual revenues, driven by five equity partners.

Led by audit boss Liam Murphy, the AFR says those partners have already signed on the dotted line to defect to Horizon Nexus, and will pick up equity in the new venture as partners after working through a six-month notice period. At the time of its acquisition of local accountancy PT Partners in 2021, the Brisbane practice also had a headcount of around 85 employees.

While not previously colleagues, Murphy does share a PwC background with Silverwood and Jeraj, having started his career at Coopers & Lybrand back in 1987 before later becoming a partner at Lawler Hacketts, which, with an already convoluted back history, evolved over time to become PKF, which in Australia is legally-structured as a national association of independent firms.

PKF altogether has nine partners between Brisbane and Townsville listed on its web-page (although it’s unclear which four beside Murphy hold equity). Those who cross will join a growing team of experienced recruits, with the AFR reporting that Horizon’s leaders have been travelling between Melbourne and Sydney making their pitch to further senior members of the Big Four.

Early recruits

So far, Horizon Nexus Partners has already brought in around a dozen former partners and directors from PwC. Ernst & Young and Deloitte as members of its leadership team, with PwC’s former deals and transactions leader Glen Hadlow the latest to join. The firm has also purchased Melbourne-based accounting outfit Blaze Acumen, which has a team of nine partners and around 60 staff.

“I am proud to share that I have been admitted to the Horizon Nexus partnership,” Hadlow, a two-and-half-decade veteran of PwC in Sydney, said in a post to LinkedIn. “Excited about the opportunity to help build a firm focused on achieving great outcomes for our clients and one which provides a rewarding, enjoyable and respectful environment for our people.”

Meanwhile, should the AFR’s report be accurate, the addition of PKF’s business in Queensland would represent a significant early coup for Horizon Nexus Partners in establishing a national footprint in line with its ambition to become a top ten Australian provider within a decade – a task that would be made easier by targeting, probably now nervous mid-tiers occupying those positions.