Duff & Phelps Opens Sydney Office and Launches Australia Restructuring Advisory Practice

Senior managing directors join firm to lead the practice; reinforces company commitment to expansion in Asia-Pacific

Sydney — Duff & Phelps, the global advisor that protects, restores and maximizes value for clients, today announced the opening of a Sydney, Australia office and expansion of its Restructuring Advisory practice to the region. 

The office, centrally located within the Sydney Central Business District, will house the new Restructuring Advisory team together with colleagues from Duff & Phelps existing service lines, including Cyber Risk, Business Intelligence and Investigations and Transfer Pricing.

With the opening of the new Sydney office, Duff & Phelps has launched its Restructuring Advisory practice in Australia and hired four restructuring and insolvency experts to build out the team:

• Marcus Ayres, Managing Director, joins Duff & Phelps from EY to lead the Australia Restructuring Advisory practice. Ayres is a seasoned restructuring professional with over 20 years of experience in corporate restructuring and insolvency, including over 13 years of cross-border restructuring experience across North America, Asia and Europe.
• Ken Whittingham, Managing Director, joins Duff & Phelps from PwC with over 35 years of experience providing restructuring and turnaround advice to major banks, financiers, large and medium size legal and accounting firms.
• David Webb, Managing Director, joins Duff & Phelps from PwC with over 26 years of experience in all facets of corporate insolvencies advising financiers, bankers, accountants, lawyers and their clients across a broad range of industries.
• Brett Lord, Managing Director, joins Duff & Phelps from EY with over 20 years of experience in corporate restructuring, advisory and insolvency. 

Paul Clark, Managing Director and Global Head of the Restructuring Advisory practice at Duff & Phelps, commented, “This is an exciting and pivotal moment for our practice as we expand our services to Australia, a key market for the firm. Restructuring advisory has evolved, and today, it means more than advising distressed companies. At Duff & Phelps, by leveraging our robust suite of services including valuation, model building, M&A advisory and transaction due diligence, we can advise companies in both distressed situations and when they are looking to maximize profit.”

Ayres commented that “The team are excited by the opportunity to expand the Duff & Phelps practice into Australia, providing the market with a truly independent, globally connected restructuring and advisory service. Together with our Duff & Phelps team, a world leader providing risk solutions, we will be providing a unique offering to the market to really help businesses make the right decisions.” 

In addition to Restructuring Advisory, Duff & Phelps existing Australia services include Transfer Pricing, led by Managing Director David Lewis, and Business Intelligence and Investigations, led by Managing Director Cem Ozturk. In July 2019, Duff & Phelps, a division of Duff & Phelps, acquired Enex Carbon, a Melbourne-based leader in cyber security management, governance and risk services, expanding the firm’s Cyber Risk practice to Australia. The Australian Cyber Risk group is led by Associate Managing Director Mark Jones.

About Duff & Phelps
Duff & Phelps is the global advisor that protects, restores and maximizes value for clients in the areas of valuation, corporate finance, disputes and investigations, cyber security, claims administration and regulatory issues. We work with clients across diverse sectors on matters of good governance and transparency. With Duff & Phelps, the leading global provider of risk solutions, and Prime Clerk, the leader in complex business services and claims administration, our firm has nearly 4,000 professionals in 25 countries around the world.