PwC adds Johnny Colville as Partner in deals wing

Johnny Colville has joined PwC’s deals practice, as the firm chases opportunities specialising in smaller deals. Colville arrives from a mid-market advisory firm, bringing 25 years of knowledge on the segment to PwC.

Lucy Stapleton, UK Head of Deals, commented, “I am absolutely thrilled to welcome Johnny to the PwC Deals team – Johnny's skillset and experience in the market will be invaluable to our practice and will strengthen our offering. I know he will bring his spirit of co-creation and collaboration to everything we do, allowing us to get the very best outcomes for our clients.”

The appointment underpins PwC’s commitment to providing best-in-class advisory services to its clients and represents an important step in building out our pre-eminent professional services platform globally. At the same time, it opens up new opportunities for its deals team.

With so much economic, geo-political and social uncertainty on the horizon, spending huge amounts on investments that could struggle to return any value became unpalatable. As a result, the global mergers and acquisitions market – which had been riding on a high from 2021 – dipped notably last year. Deal volume in 2022 fell significantly by 19%, with 853 completed globally, compared to 1,047 deals in 2021.

In this tightening market, PwC’s deals team seems to be strengthening its capacity to win business in the mid-market space. While deal values may be lower there, there has been a less marked slowdown in activity – presenting the firm with more opportunities to win work.

Johnny Colville joins as a Partner to lead PwC’s coverage of the financial investor community. In a similar role with investment advisory Houlihan Lokey, he helped grow its financial sponsor coverage platform into the largest mid-market team in Europe – meaning he brings over 25 years of experience to PwC, having advised clients in the UK and across Europe on a wide range of sell-side, buy-side and capital raising transactions. 

Colville, Partner at PwC, noted, “With expert practitioners across 156 territories and a product suite that supports investors across the entire life cycle of asset ownership, I am looking forward to working with colleagues to provide our clients with solutions to their most pressing and important issues.”