Deloitte FAS hires JP Morgan veteran Chris Nicholls
Deloitte Financial Advisory Services (FAS) has announced the appointment of JP Morgan Executive Director Chris Nicholls as Partner of its Equity Capital Markets team. Nicholls will provide advice to companies coming to the market in London. The decision of Deloitte to strengthen its FAS team matches a trend of consulting firms hiring from banks to compete with their core businesses.
Chris Nicholls has joined accounting and consulting firm Deloitte FAS from investment bank JP Morgan Cazenove where he acted as Executive Director since 2007. Prior to working at JP Morgan, Nicholls worked for eight years for financial services firm Lehman Brothers and for four years for investment bank Deutsche Morgan Grenfell, giving him almost 20 years of experience in the financial sector. Prior to this, he worked at the Audit & Business Advisory practice of Arthur Andersen.
As Partner of Deloitte’s Equity Capital Markets team, Nicholls will provide advice to companies that are seeking a listing, and to public companies on a variety of issues, including mergers and acquisitions. “We feel the time is right to strengthen the depth of our team, with Chris joining to lead and bolster our independent financial advisory proposition and to enhance our general PLC advisory offering to clients,” comments John Hammond, Head of Equity Capital Markets at Deloitte. “I am delighted to welcome Chris to the team and am particularly excited about the opportunities ahead.”
“I believe there is a great opportunity for Deloitte to build its position in the independent financial adviser market, with its traditional strength in IPOs and trusted relationships with clients,” comments Nicholls. The decision by Deloitte to hire a veteran banker to strengthen its team of advisers follows the trend of services firms increasingly moving into the financial advisory space to compete with banks’ core lending and advisory functions.
From banking to consulting
In the past year, the other Big Four firms also hired bankers from large investment banks. Just a year ago, PwC hired Rothschild banker Peter Whelan as Head of its new Equity Capital Markets Advisory Service, last October KPMG announced the appointment of James Agnew, currently Chairman of UK Corporate Broking of the Deutsche Bank, as Senior Member of its Capital Advisory Group who will join in 2015, and EY has hired Blaise Girard, former Head of Retail Investment Banking in Europe of America of Merrill Lynch.
