BrazilMazars adds Corporate Finance to Dutch Financial Advisory Services arm
Mazars has launched a Corporate Finance unit in the Netherlands. The new service line is part of the Financial Advisory Services division of the accountancy and consultancy firm.
The new practice follows from Mazars’ acquisition of Ten Kate Huizinga, a top 30 player in the Dutch accounting and financial advisory landscape (in terms of revenue). Ten Kate Huizinga, which in particular had a strong footprint in the east of the Netherlands, had about 200 professionals, including eleven partners, generating an annual turnover of more than €15 million. The deal lifted Mazars’ total fee income in the country to around €87 million, and its headcount to around 750 employees.
Mazars already had a Financial Advisory Services arm in the Netherlands – the practice supports clients with due diligence investigations, valuations and litigation support, including dispute valuation and economic damage calculations for court proceedings. With the addition of Ten Kate Huizinga Corporate Finance, the Dutch Mazars organisation now also has a corporate finance practice.
The new service line – Mazars Corporate Finance – provides corporate finance services including offerings such as mergers & acquisitions, transaction support, valuations, financing and due diligence. The team is headed by Aron de Jong, who has been appointed a partner at Mazars. Commenting on the development, he said “Mazars is a trusted adviser to many medium-sized companies in the Netherlands and these companies often face M&A and transaction-related challenges. Mazars is a global integrated professional services firm – this creates more opportunities for us to support cross-border transactions, and also offers opportunities for the personal development of our experts.”
Aron de Jong founded Ten Kate Huizinga Corporate Finance in 2012. Before that he worked for EY for more than ten years, latterly serving as an Executive Director in EY Transaction Advisory Services. Prior to his period with EY, he worked for more than ten years as a chartered accountant and transaction services specialist at KPMG. He is joined in the move by Bas Coumans (formerly EY and PwC), Linda Spoolder (formerly for EY and BDO), Suzanne Meijer and Paul Pieters.
Commenting on the addition of corporate finance to its portfolio of services, Thomas Notenboom, who leads the Dutch Financial Advisory Services practice of Mazars, stated; “We are pleased with the addition of the corporate finance team of Ten Kate Huizinga. Our clients were increasingly asking us to provide corporate finance services, it is great that we can going forward deliver on that.”
According to a recent study from KPMG, the Dutch deals landscape is buoyant. The number of transactions noted in the Netherlands stands at its highest point in ten years, at 714 deals, compared to under 500 deals in 2014.
