BMR Advisors said on Tuesday it has promoted five executives as partners to boost its offerings in several segments including tax advisory, mergers and acquisitions and risk advisory services.
The firm promoted Anand Laxmeshwar, Sumit Singhania and Saurabh Kanchan in tax practice; Lokesh Malik in M&A and Harkishan Bhatia in the risk and advisory team as partners, it said in a statement.
“With their unique skill sets and expertise, the new partners will be invaluable to our clients,†said Mukesh Butani, chairman at BMR Advisors.
Laxmeshwar, who has over 15 years of experience, specialises in transaction-specific tax advisory services, with a focus on real estate and infrastructure sectors. Singhania has more than 12 years of experience in advising multinational and Indian firms on matters including double-taxation avoidance agreements, transaction tax and exchange control, among others.
Kanchan advises clients on transaction flows and contracting structures, state financial incentives, dispute resolution and financial modelling. With his promotion, the firm’s indirect tax practice will have seven partners.
Malik has been with the firm for 12 years and specialises in transaction tax and restructuring across multiple sectors with a focus on media and entertainment. Bhatia has been part of the firm’s risk and advisory practice, covering business advisory, fraud investigations, transition to the goods and services tax (GST), process reviews and risk assessment, among others.
The mid-sized advisory firm now has 33 partners and over 600 consultants.
A partner at a Mumbai-based law firm said audit and tax consulting firms, including KPMG, Deloitte, PwC and EY, are ramping up teams so that they can help clients prepare for GST, which is likely to be rolled out nationwide from July. “Many smaller and mid-sized tax advisory firms are either consolidating or poaching tax teams from peers to compete with big audit and consulting firms,†he added.
BMR Advisors was co-founded by Butani and Bobby Parikh. The duo previously worked with auditing firm Arthur Andersen. In 2011, Parikh became chief mentor at BMR Advisors while Butani was named chairman.
Butani also founded law firm BMR Legal. Recently, Shardul Shroff-led law firm Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co poached the entire corporate advisory team of BMR Legal including four partners and 30 lawyers.
*This article has been updated to correct factual inaccuracies.
