Deloitte Australia continues to strengthen its Private Client offering in tie-up with GMK Partners
Deloitte Australia has announced that its Deloitte Private practice will join forces with leading Melbourne firm, GMK Partners (GMK), the latest in a series of strategic transactions to expand the capacity of the Big Four professional services firm in the private clients market.
As part of a growth strategy, which continues apace under recently appointed CEO Cindy Hook, 12 GMK Directors and 75 staff have been invited to join the firm’s Melbourne Deloitte Private team.
GMK Partners, the largest boutique provider of chartered accounting services to the high-net-worth sector in Melbourne, is the firm of choice for many of Melbourne’s most eminent private and family businesses, investors and professionals, in particular from the medical and legal fields.
“We were particularly attracted to GMK’s strong business advisory skills as well as their tax, superannuation and audit capabilities,” said Sneza Pelusi Deloitte Private Managing Partner.
Sneza Pelusi believes technological innovations are changing the face of professional services and cannot be ignored.
“Cloud technologies give savvy business owners the ability to access their live and up-to-the-moment financial information from anywhere at any time and on any device,” she said.
“This ability to provide business owners with a real-time view of their financial performance has the potential to change the way they think about their business and, in particular, the timeliness with which they can make decisions to optimize performance.”
“The launch of Deloitte Private Connect, our cloud-based offering that combines shared ledger accounting with automated bookkeeping, benchmarking, an online portal and many other digital technologies has been a transformational investment for Deloitte Private. It continues to revolutionise the way we work with our clients.”
Deloitte CEO Cindy Hook believes it is an exciting time of transition for many of Australia’s great family businesses and large private companies.
“We are seeing accounting, tax advisory, succession planning and business restructuring services in great demand in this important part of the Australian economy,” she said.
“Deloitte is committed to helping our clients leverage new technologies to grow their businesses and better structure their affairs. I know the leaders of GMK are equally passionate about helping their clients through this period of change.”
Joining forces with GMK in Melbourne will increase the Deloitte Private group to 120 partners and 1100 staff nationally and create what Deloitte believes is a dominant market position in the private clients sector in Australia.
“This transaction continues the growth momentum of Deloitte Private, with Moore Stephens Sydney West joining our Deloitte Private business in Western Sydney in 2014, followed later that year by market leading Perth-based firm, KD Johns & Co, joining our Deloitte Private team in Perth and the consulting and cloud advisory team from The Lonsdale Group in February this year,” Cindy said.
Kevin Slomoi, a director of GMK, said: “Joining Deloitte Private will expand the multidisciplinary services our team can access to serve our loyal client base, such as new and innovative cloud based technology as well as the intellectual property and deep experience within Deloitte’s broader practice areas such as specialist tax advice and M&A advisory.”
“Our people will be able to access the benefits of being part of the global Deloitte network, an innovative firm focused on developing new products and services, which will provide them with increased opportunities for career development.”