BDO Italy has added 50 professionals, including 7 partners, from Grant Thornton to its national offices.
The recruits will offer accounting and consulting services to national and international clients across a spectrum of industries.
BDO Italy now has 700 partners across the country, including in key cities Milan, Bergamo, Novara, Verona and Vincenza.
"This step further cements BDO’s standing in a key marketplace and will build on the firm’s already impressive performance in recent years," Anders Heede, CEO EMEA at BDO, said. "I am confident that we will see additional merger activity in the coming months, which is a further testament to BDO’s commitment to the ongoing consolidation in the audit profession."
This is a second major coup by BDO in the last six months. Indeed in July 2015, International Accounting Bulletin broke the news that BDO S.p.A (Italy) and Mazars S.p.A (Italy) had "transferred" their activities in audit, accounting and consulting to the new entity named BDO Italia S.p.A.
According to IAB’s latest Italy survey, BDO ranked fifth, reporting total fee income of €49.1m ($54.7m) in the year to 31 August 2014 and Mazars ranked sixth with revenues of €41m in the same year.
With the 2015 merger and the additional 50 recruits of 2016, BDO Italia is poised to occupy a gap between the Big Four and the rest of the mid-tiers, as Grant Thornton ranked seventh ranked with revenues of €31.1m. Grant Thornton’s Italians staff numbers are estimated to drop from 366 to approximately to 316.
"Not only do our people now have access to many more opportunities to pursue career growth but, with its headcount of experienced professionals growing consistently, BDO is uniquely positioned being able to provide exceptional client service to leading mid-market companies throughout Italy", adds Lelio Bigogno, who is a former Grant Thornton partner.
This magazine contacted Grant Thornton International however no-one has came forward to comment.
