50 Grant Thornton professionals move to rival BDO

04 February 2016 Consultancy.uk

BDO has significantly bolstered its footprint in Italy with the addition of nearly 50 professionals from Grant Thornton, including seven partners, taking its total employee base in the country to around 700.

Globally BDO is present in 151 countries across the globe, with circa 1,320+ offices and 60,000 professionals. Its Italian operations currently consists of 20 offices, including hubs in Cagliari, Rome, Milan, Torino, Florence and Napoli.

Per the 1st of January 2016 BDO Italy, founded in 1965, has strengthened its team with 50 professionals from Grant Thornton, including seven partners. The team ‘carved-out’ from its rival offers a wide range of accounting and consulting services to national and international clients across a wide spectrum of industries. The new professionals will relocate to five Italian BDO offices: Milan, Bergamo, Novara, Verona and Vicenza and with the addition the accounting and consulting giant now has 700 partners and staff throughout the country.

Simone Del Bianco, Managing Partner of BDO Italy, says the move is a “major step that greatly enhances BDO’s service delivery” in Italy, which he describes as one of BDO’s “most significant” markets in Europe. “This expansion means that our firm is gaining not only leading industry experts with a strong reputation across the region for excellence, but also a number of prominent clients nationwide”.

“Our clients will continue to receive the local, hands-on service they value, but will now have access to the wider expertise and resources provided by BDO's global network,” adds Lelio Bigogno, one of the seven Grant Thornton partners that moved over. “BDO is uniquely positioned to provide exceptional client service to leading mid-market companies throughout Italy”.

Anders Heede, who heads BDO’s EMEA region, comments, “This step further cements BDO’s standing in a key marketplace and will build on the firm’s already impressive performance in recent years.” Looking ahead, Heede says the firm is continuously on the outlook for expansion opportunities, stating “I am confident that we will see additional merger activity in the coming months.”