BDO POACHES 40 PARTNERS, 400 EXECUTIVES FROM ITS COMPETITORS

The company has roped in partners and senior executives from not only competitors such as Grant Thornton, Baker Tilly and law firm ELP, but also from bigger players Deloitte and KPMG. This may mark the beginning of aggressive talent poaching among professional services firms beyond the Big Four, say industry trackers. The Big Four -EY, PwC, KPMG and Deloitte have been on a poaching spree in the past six months.

“We have roped in so me of the best names from the industry, broad-basing the partnership and making it more robust as we see a huge opportunity ahead in audit, taxation, forensic and valuation segments.The regulatory environment, including audit rotation and GST among other things, provides a huge growth potential for us in India,“ said Milind Kothari, managing partner, BDO India.

All the partners that have joined are equity partners, say insiders. Kothari has managed to lure some of the biggest names as he has not just negotiated role and salary of the partners, but also the equity that each will hold in the firm, say insiders.

BDO, which is one of the eight major multinational professional services firms operating in the country, had recently seen some churn at its Pune office. In May this year about seven partners and 80 executives quit the firm.