Accountancy firm Azets Ireland is planning to double the size of its corporate finance team in the Republic, positioning itself to exploit an expected boom in mid-market merger and acquisition (M&A) activity over the coming years as interest rates begin to fall.
On Wednesday the firm said it had named former Mazars corporate finance director David Lucas to head the division and lead the expansion.
Most recently, Mr Lucas served as corporate finance partner at PKF O’Connor, Leddy and Holmes, the rival Dublin-based accountancy firm that agreed to merge with Azets earlier this year. The enlarged firm is headed by Azets chief executive Neil Hughes and chaired by Donal O’Leary, the current managing partner in PKF O’Connor, Leddy & Holmes.
Azets, a London-based accounting, audit and advisory group, entered the Irish market more than a year ago with the purchase of Baker Tilly Ireland, where Mr Hughes was in charge.
The firm is now in expansion mode against a backdrop of growing interest in Irish companies as M&A targets. Although deal-making activity is down compared with last year, the market picked up in the second quarter and analysts expect softening inflation and falling interest rates to further stimulate activity into the second half and beyond.
Mr Lucas said the move came at an exciting time for Azets as it expands its operations here against a promising market backdrop. “The expected reduction in interest rates is likely to boost deal activity in the short to medium term while there is growing interest in Irish businesses from international as well as domestic trade and private equity buyers,” he said.
The firm, which employs 260 people at offices in Dublin, Wexford and Waterford, said the Irish M&A market had outperformed the global market in recent years with private equity deals up 30 per cent in the first quarter of 2024 alone. The firm wants to add 20 new recruits to its 16-person corporate finance team over the next three years to capitalise on these conditions, enabling it to advise companies on a growing number of transactions.
Hailing Mr Lucas as an “ideal leader” to drive the firm’s corporate finance expansion plan, Mr Hughes said the group was poised for near-term growth. “As Azets continues its growth journey both in Ireland and internationally, we see this role as critical in leading the delivery of the specialist corporate finance services that our entrepreneurial client base needs,” he said.
There were 108 mergers and acquisitions involving Irish companies in the second quarter of this year, stockbrokers Davy said earlier this week, 21 per cent ahead of the 89 transactions completed in the preceding three months.