Four members of KPMG Ireland’s corporate restructuring and insolvency team in Belfast, including practice head Stuart Irwin, have handed in their notice to join the fledgling Irish arm of UK-based Interpath Advisory, according to sources.
Ian Leonard, a director at KPMG Ireland, and associate directors Robin Coughlin and Grainne Baker are the other Belfast insolvency managers that have quit in recent days to join Interpath Ireland, they said.
It is understood that the individuals will start moving in the coming months, as they have shorter notice periods than the five high-profile, Dublin-based KPMG and Deloitte insolvency partners that resigned earlier this year to establish Interpath Ireland.
Spokeswomen for KPMG and Interpath did not respond to requests for comment.
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It emerged last February that KPMG partners Kieran Wallace and Eamonn Richardson, best known as the joint liquidators of Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC), and Deloitte partners Ken Fennell, Mark Degnan and James Anderson were leaving the respective firms to set up Interpath Ireland. However, a spokesman for Deloitte said on Wednesday that Mr Anderson has decided to remain with the firm.
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The exiting Deloitte partners’ notice periods run until January 2023, while those of the KPMG figures extend to April. It is understood that talks are under way to secure amicable early release dates.
Former KPMG insolvency practitioner Andrew O’Leary became Interpath Ireland’s first senior employee in June. He picked up the practice’s first liquidation contract last month, when Tiger Wood Fired Pizza, which had outlets in Rathmines and Deansgrange in Dublin and was backed by the wealthy McCann family of Fyffes fame, ran into financial trouble.
Interpath Ireland is understood to have about 10 employees and has set its sights on developing a team of 30 to 40 by the middle of next year, rising to 120 within two to three years of that. Mr Fennell and Mr Wallace will ultimately lead the Irish operation.
Interpath Advisory was established in May last year as KPMG in the UK sold its corporate restructuring business to private-equity firm HIG Capital for more than £350 million (€400 million). The sale allowed the restructuring business to continue to win work from the Big Four firm’s audit clients as it removed the risk of conflicts of interests at a time of heightened regulatory oversight of the sector.
Court-appointed officials
Most of the larger outstanding examinership and liquidation cases that the exiting KPMG Ireland and Deloitte Ireland partners are involved in are expected to move with them to the new practice, as they are court-appointed officials in each instance.
It is understood that it has been agreed that the work of Mr Wallace and Mr Richardson on IBRC will transfer to Interpath Ireland. Mr Fennell and Mr Anderson’s liquidation of the Irish arm of German payments company Wirecard, which collapsed in 2020, as well as Mr Fennell and Mr Degnan’s wind-up of Stobart Air, are also likely to move.
A widely predicted global surge in business collapses at the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic two years ago was averted by Government aid for companies and households during the worst of the crisis.
However, Irish corporate insolvencies rose 50 per cent in the first half of this year to 253, according to Deloitte, as supports were phased out and businesses grappled with soaring inflation. While the level remained well off the average of 372 for the comparable periods in 2018 and 2019, before the pandemic, insolvencies are widely expected to continue to rise in the coming 12 months.
