BLAIR Nimmo, Scotland’s most high-profile insolvency practitioner, has been elevated to the top business recovery post in the worldwide operations of KPMG.
Mr Nimmo, perhaps best known for his work on the administrations of football clubs Airdrie and Heart of Midlothian, has been appointed global head of insolvency at the accountancy giant. He takes over the role from Richard Heis, who retired from the firm earlier this year.
Mr Nimmo’s rise to the top global insolvency role at KPMG comes after a 19-month spell as head of the firm’s UK restructuring practice. He joined KPMG nearly three decades ago, arriving in 1991 after undertaking his training with Cooper and Lybrand’s restructuring practice. He went on to run KPMG’s practice in Scotland for 20 years.
KPMG said that during his time with the firm Mr Nimmo, who studied at the University of Edinburgh, has become a trusted advisor to stressed and distressed businesses, having worked on insolvency projects in sectors such as energy and natural resources, infrastructure and manufacturing, real estate, leisure and football.
He was recently appointed, alongside colleagues Jim Tucker and Mike Pink, as joint administrator to Monarch Airlines.
Commenting on his promotion, Mr Nimmo paid rich tribute to his colleagues in Scotland, noting that his appointment reflects the expertise and dedication shown by the team over recent years.
However, despite working on administrations across a range of sectors, Mr Nimmo said he continues to be best known for his work at Airdrie, the Lanarkshire football club which went into liquidation in 2002. The club would ultimately relaunch, but the experience of liquidating the company was bruising for Mr Nimmo, who received death threats at the height of the crisis.
Asked if his experience of working on such controversial appointments has stood him in good stead, Mr Nimmo, who will continue to spend two to three days a week in Scotland in his new role, said: “It’s funny, the football one at Airdrie is still the one that everybody refers to as the most noteworthy one.
“To be fair, it was a small football club… but it tested me in its own way. All of a sudden, a boring accountant was thrust into a high-profile world in PR terms anyway, and how you handle yourself in that capacity. Whilst it was a small business or small football club, it was the first bankruptcy since Third Lanark [in 1967], and therefore it carried with it a lot of profile.”
He added: “Am I glad for that experience? Yes. Interestingly, I’ve been asked to get involved in a lot of football things since then, and I have done so in an informal advisory capacity, not in a formal insolvency capacity, and I’m not desperately keen to go back there.
“The reasons for that are that, first of all, it took up a huge proportion of my time. Secondly, because of that, it brings a notoriety that is probably not that helpful to other parts of your work.
“People automatically assume your job is about busting football clubs, which it is not.”
Mr Nimmo’s elevation comes shortly after figures from KPMG signalled a 23 per cent fall in Scottish corporate insolvencies in the third quarter compared with the same period last year. The fall came amid steadier times for the troubled oil and gas sector.
Asked to comment on the general economic outlook, Mr Nimmo said the statistics point to the economy being stable, with appointments at a historic low. However, he said the uncertainty caused by Brexit and the lingering question over Scottish independence, as well as rising inflation and the first increase in interest rates in more than a decade, means business people are in a “cautious” mood.
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