KPMG in the UK has announced the appointment of Neill Thomas as head of Corporate Finance and Andrew Nicholson as head of M&A.

Both will replace Richard Clarke, who held both roles before recently being appointed to take up a new position as head of investment management within the firm's Financial Services practice.

In addition, Jonathan White becomes KPMG's UK Head of Valuations, taking over from Doug McPhee, who continues as Global Head of Valuations.

Neill Thomas will continue as KPMG's Global Head of Capital Advisory and Chair of the KPMG Makinson Cowell management board, responsible for a network of over 200 capital advisory practitioners located in centres of excellence covering all the world's major capital markets. He was previously head of KPMG's UK Debt Advisory business, where he acted as lead advisor to major companies including Britvic, InterContinental Hotels and William Hill.

Prior to joining KPMG in 2001, Thomas worked for fifteen years for Schroders. During his career, he has advised companies and financial institutions in establishing more than £300 billion of financing.

Andrew Nicholson has over 15 years’ experience in M&A, with specialist expertise in the healthcare sector. During his career, he has owned and operated businesses, as well as advising companies, investors and management teams on acquisitions, disposals, joint ventures and fund raisings.

Nicholson joined KPMG eight years ago from Rothschild, and has since built KPMG's dedicated Healthcare M&A team which has gone on to lead many deals within the UK healthcare services market. Recent examples include acting as lead advisor on the sale of Asteral to Permira; the sale of European Care Group and the sale of City & County to Graphite Capital.

Neill Thomas, head of Corporate Finance for KPMG in the UK, said: “This is a fantastic time to be taking charge of our Corporate Finance business which, over the last twelve months, has led on some landmark transactions across the UK and grown revenue by over 25 percent. With the UK economic recovery now having firmly taking hold, we intend to strengthen our range of services to help new and existing clients.”

Andrew Nicholson, head of M&A for KPMG, added: “While recent data from the ONS suggests that deal completions for the first half of 2014 were relatively flat on the prior year, KPMG has grown its market share with a strong increase in completed transactions. We expect the number of completions to increase further over the next year, providing buoyant conditions for companies to find new partners, and investors to be able to close opportunities.”