Duff & Phelps snags tax experts from rivals

• Orangefield, a fund administrator, appointed Anna Coutts Donald as director of its UK office. Coutts Donald joins Orangefield from rival fund administration firm Alter Domus where she set up its London office. Prior to that, she spent almost a decade at KPMG where she started her career in tax.

• Due diligence consultancy firm Kreller Group hired Jeffrey Holbrook as a global specialist to work for US and international clients. Prior to his appointment at Kreller, Holbrook was vice president, sales for fire safety firm Odice in Boulder, Colorado.

• BNP Paribas Securities Services launched an outsourcing service for reporting under the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD). The reporting service will see BNP Paribas collecting, classifying and validating data from multiple sources before populating the AIFMD report.

• ‘Big Four’ audit firm KPMG promoted Neill Thomas to head of corporate finance, Andrew Nicholson to head of M&A and Jonathan White to UK head of valuations.

• Director of research at the Latin American Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, Juan Ignacio Savino, has joined Barcelona-based placement agent Sabertia Capital Partners. He joins as a vice president and will continue to work as a senior advisor to the trade body.

• Valuation specialists Duff & Phelps bolstered its transfer pricing practice with the addition of three managing directors. Former KPMG tax partner Richard Newby and Taxand founding partner Shiv Mahalingham have joined the London office, while former EY tax director Christopher Newman has joined the Silicon Valley office.

• Duff & Phelps also opened a new office in Frankfurt. Daniel Kittlauss and Dr. Timo Willershausen, managing directors at the firm, will jointly lead this new office which will focus on providing the firm’s core valuation advisory services.

• Augentius has received authorization from the Ministère des Finances, Luxembourg to act as a depositary to private equity and real estate funds in accordance with the AIFMD.

• Recruitment firm CTPartners Executive Search has signed a binding letter of intent to acquire Austrian-based rival Neumann. The financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

• Software provider Pacific Fund Systems created an automated AIFMD reporting software tool in the latest release of its PFS-PAXUS fund accounting and share registry software platform. The software, automatically generates XML files in the ESMA format for submission to local regulatory authorities.

• Investec appointed Christian Hess as head of its newly created “Financial Sponsor Transaction Group”. Hess, a founding member of UBS financial sponsor group, will lead the bank’s private equity advisory unit from its London office.

• Fund administrator Aztec Group opened its sixth office, located in Amsterdam, which will be headed up by Andreas Dimmel, currently a director in the firm’s Luxembourg office.

• ISIS Fund Services, a fund administration firm, is in the process of changing its name due to the increased conflict in Iraq and Syria.

• Ogier Fiduciary Services re-brands as Elian following Electra’s £180 million ($295 million; €218 million) management buyout of the fund administrator in June.