It's never nice when kids and parents fall out, especially when the parent has been enduring such a torrid time of it recently. However, this is where we are with KPMG and their flyaway child, Interpath. The former parent has had a rough time of late, with tales of '£1 billion law suits' being issued against them by the government Liquidator, resulting in an announcement last week that KPMG will not be tendering for any public contracts for the foreseeable future.
Today (Monday 20 December) the Financial Times reported that KPMG will not refer any work to its former UK restructuring business Interpath Advisory, as a result, we understand, of the scandal over the sale of bed manufacturer Silentnight to a private equity firm. (Do you remember how KPMG was fined £13 million by an industry tribunal over a conflict of interest in its former restructuring business when it advised on Silentnight entering Administration in 2011? It still smarts in Canary Wharf.)
We are better at recent history than we are at the ancient stuff in the NTI newsroom, but wasn't the whole idea of the breakaway by Interpath the avoidance of pesky conflict issues, releasing them to go for every juicy job going?
The most cheesed off of all parties must be HIG Capital, who bought the insolvency and restructuring division in May for more than £350 million. For some reason we cannot entirely fathom, KPMG has decided not to refer any work to Interpath, even though there is no barrier to it doing so under the terms of the sale, according to sources close to Sky News.
Teneo, PwC and EY must be rubbing their hands in glee this afternoon. Similar hands to those being held to their heads by those at HIG.
