Corporate Finance & Advisory
M&A & Deals — Partner & Team Search
Lead advisory partners, deal directors and execution teams for buy-side and sell-side M&A, carve-outs, JVs and post-merger integration — placed on the strength of a portable, verifiable deal record.
Market overview
M&A lead advisory is the most visible and most fiercely contested talent market in corporate finance. APAC M&A value rose 39.3% to nearly US$1.2 trillion in 2025 on flat volume, meaning the value uplift came from larger, more complex transactions — exactly the work that commands senior partner attention and the richest fees [1]. The mega-deal comeback (35 transactions worth US$416 billion regionally) restored confidence to a market that had been mid-market-starved, and firms responded by reopening partner headcount they had frozen through 2023 [1][2].
The Big Four and the larger independents now compete directly with bulge-bracket and boutique investment banks for the same advisory talent. By APAC deal volume in Q1-Q3 2025, PwC led all advisors with 172 deals, ahead of its Big Four peers, while bank advisors led on value [3]. That bifurcation — accounting firms winning the mid-market on volume, banks winning the headline value — defines who each firm needs to hire: accounting-firm advisory leaders prize origination density and sector relationships over single jumbo mandates.
Hiring in this sub-discipline is overwhelmingly relationship-led and team-shaped. A partner's value is the pipeline they originate and the directors and managers who can execute it, so lift-outs of a partner-plus-team are the norm at the senior end. The most contested point in any negotiation is deal-credit portability: which named transactions a candidate can legitimately claim a lead role on, and whether the relationships behind them travel. Restrictive covenants, garden leave and client-non-solicit terms make timing as important as price.
Sub-sector specialisation increasingly determines who gets hired. Financial-services M&A value nearly doubled in APAC in 2025 to US$196.9 billion, and the industrials and chemicals sector delivered the largest absolute increase at US$263.5 billion (up 69.9%) — so partners with credible FIG, industrials or TMT origination are in acutely short supply, while generalist coverage commands a discount [1]. Cross-border corridor expertise (Singapore-Malaysia-Hong Kong middle-market, China-outbound, India inbound, Middle East capital into Asia) is the other axis of scarcity.
What we cover
- Buy-side & sell-side M&A
- Divestments & carve-outs
- Joint ventures & strategic alliances
- Post-merger integration
Roles we place
Lead Advisory / Origination
- Partner, M&A Lead Advisory
- Managing Director, Corporate Finance
- Head of M&A (Country / Sector)
- Origination Partner
Execution
- M&A Director
- Associate Director, Deals
- Deal Execution Manager
- Vice President, Corporate Finance
Carve-out & Integration
- Partner, Divestitures & Carve-outs
- Director, Post-Merger Integration
- JV & Strategic Alliances Lead
- Separation Management Office Lead
Candidate profile
CA / ACA / CPA qualified, frequently augmented by CFA or an MBA for senior origination roles; ACA-plus-CFA is the prized double for valuation-literate dealmakers.
A portable, verifiable deal record — named transactions with a defensible lead or co-lead role, ideally with referenceable client relationships that travel.
Sector depth in at least one high-demand vertical: FIG, industrials & chemicals, TMT, healthcare, consumer or energy transition.
Cross-border execution experience across an APAC corridor (SG-MY-HK middle market, China-outbound, India inbound) and increasingly Middle East capital flows, with languages aligned to coverage (Mandarin / Cantonese, Bahasa, Japanese / Korean).
Seniority
- Manager / Associate Director
- Director / Vice President
- Senior Director / Principal
- Partner / Managing Director
Sectors served
- Financial services / FIG
- Industrials & chemicals
- Technology, media & telecom
- Healthcare & life sciences
- Consumer & retail
- Energy & infrastructure
Frequently asked
- Do you place individual partners or whole teams?
- Both, but at the senior end most of our M&A mandates are team lift-outs — a partner arriving with the directors and managers who already execute as a unit. An intact team de-risks integration for the hiring firm and shortens time-to-first-fee, which is why acquirers will pay a premium for it.
- How is deal credit verified in a search?
- We reference each candidate's claimed lead transactions independently — confirming role, mandate type and whether the underlying client relationships are genuinely portable. Inflated deal credit is the most common reason a partner offer is repriced or withdrawn, so we test it early.
- Which sectors are hardest to hire for right now?
- FIG and industrials & chemicals partners are the scarcest, mirroring where APAC deal value grew fastest in 2025. Generalist coverage is comparatively well-supplied and commands a discount.