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Changing client expectations will drive industry consolidation as smaller accounting practices struggle to compete with the full-service offerings of large professional services firms, according to KPMG’s new head of private clients.
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Consolidation driven by client expectations, says KPMG
27 May 2015
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Speaking to AccountantsDaily, Rob Bazzani, recently appointed head of KPMG’s private enterprise practice, said clients now expect an adviser to provide a full suite of services and this will drive consolidation across the accounting profession.
“I think it would be fair to say that the entire market is evolving to where accountants need to be a true adviser, a true professional services firm rather than being viewed as an accountant or a tax adviser,” he said.
“Today, we expect ourselves, and require ourselves, to be able to have full commercial discussions with clients, not just about their business but about their plans, strategies, succession, governance issues, and all those types of things.”
Mr Bazzani said the changing environment has forced KPMG to evaluate its own offering and resulted in the firm making a number of strategic acquisitions in recent years, most recently, the firm’s acquisition of Hayes Knight WA.
“We're very much driven to grow ourselves but also very focused on helping our clients to grow. Where there’s a capability gap in our service offering we will look in-house to fill that, otherwise, we will acquire it.”
Mr Bazzani said that as leader of the private enterprise group, he is looking for ways to build the practice and expects more acquisitions to come.
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“I’ve said previously, ‘watch this space’; we are very open minded to bring the best service capability to our clients and if we don’t have it internally then we will look for it in an acquisition.”
This acquisition activity, said Mr Bazzani, will be industry-wide, with top-tier firms buying smaller players to boost their service offerings and lower-tier firms looking to merge and unify expertise.
Financial services brokerage Connect said it has already seen a significant increase in merger and acquisition activity within the accounting sector since the start of 2015.
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