The strategic consulting firm which last year led the buyout of Deloitte’s UK restructuring operations will this week swoop on an overseas unit of KPMG, another of the big four global accountancy firms.

Sky News understands that Teneo is close to announcing the acquisition of KPMG’s Cayman and British Virgin Islands restructuring division, giving it a foothold in key global markets for offshore insolvency activity.

A deal could be announced as early as Wednesday, according to insiders.

The transaction will add roughly 25 restructuring practitioners to Teneo’s financial advisory arm, with Kris Beighton, former head of the KPMG unit being acquired, rejoining as chairman of Teneo’s offshore restructuring business, the insiders added.

One sources said the acquisition was expected to be followed by others as Daniel Butters, the chief executive of Teneo’s financial advisory division, seeks to build a global restructuring capability.

Establishing a presence in the Caribbean is regarded as important by international insolvency practitioners and lawyers because of the concentration there of holding companies for businesses operating in major economies such as China and Hong Kong.

Teneo’s purchase of the Deloitte UK restructuring arm came amid a shake-up of the UK audit sector amid growing political and regulatory clamour for reform in the wake of a series of corporate accounting scandals.

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KPMG itself sold its UK restructuring business last year, with HIG Capital, a private equity firm, buying the unit – which has since been renamed Interpath – for close to £400m.

Since joining Teneo, which is backed by the private equity firm CVC Capital Partners, the former Deloitte team has secured one of the UK’s largest restructuring roles by acting as administrator to Bulb, the energy company which collapsed in November amid the sector-wide crisis.

Deloitte had been persuaded to hold talks with prospective buyers of its restructuring arm in order to optimise the proceeds of such a deal, rather than risk seeing an exodus of partners frustrated by growing restrictions because of a clampdown on potential conflicts of interest within audit firms.

Prior to buying the Deloitte business, Teneo had acquired a number of smaller firms, including Goldin Associates in the US and Credo in the UK.

Restructuring executives believe that scaling their businesses is likely to pay off with insolvencies expected to rise even as economies continue their staggered recovery from the pandemic.

The withdrawal of government support programmes is likely to leave thousands of companies vulnerable to financial shocks, with supply chains in many industries in chaos and input costs soaring because of inflationary pressures.

Teneo and KPMG declined to comment.

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