KPMG acquires consultancy High Point Rendel

KPMG has acquired the strategic management and commercial consulting arms of High-Point Rendel, in another move to boost its specialist advisory expertise.

High-Point Rendel offers commercial, contractual, programme and risk management services to clients who primarily operate in the energy, transportation, oil and gas sectors.

KPMG’s Major Projects Advisory team will take on 35 staff from High-Point Rendel, and the new practice will be known as KPMG-HPR.

High-Point Rendel’s CEO, Kelvin Hingley, managing director Nigel Bell and KPMG partner Gordon Shearer will lead the practice, with HPR’s chairman Sir Alan Cockshaw advising KPMG on a consultancy basis.

The move comes a month after KPMG’s acquisition of transformation consultancy Boxwood and at a time when mergers and acquisitions are regular occurrences for the Big Four. In the last two and a half years, there have been over 75 acquisitions and alliances, with KPMG recently completing more than 30 deals, according to Source Information Services’ Margaret Cameron-Waller.

Last year, the Big Four saw their consultancies grow by 10.75% and Accountancy Age’s Top 50+50 survey for 2014 shows they earned £2.7 billion.

Advisory head at KPMG, Richard Fleming, said the latest acquisition “marks a step-change for KPMG both in the UK and globally.”

He added: “Global investment in infrastructure is growing at an exponential rate, with spend predicted to reach £45 billion in the UK during 2016 alone. Our clients are grappling with increasingly ambitious and complex projects, which bring with them unfamiliar risks, amplified by the additional complexity that global supply chains bring.”

HPR chairman Cockshaw commented: “The HPR team is extremely excited about being an important part of a composite and full service global and local offering with the clear expectation of becoming the world’s premier major project advisor.”