Patisserie Valerie

CMS has been handed a mandate on the investigation into the £40 million accounting black hole that sparked turmoil at café chain Patisserie Valerie.

The firm's role has emerged as Osborne Clarke, which had been working on a restructuring mandate for the company, and had reportedly bagged a role on the investigation, is no longer involved, according to one person with knowledge of the situation. A second person added that the firm was no longer working on a restructuring mandate for the client.

Osborne Clarke's role advising longstanding client Patisserie Valerie had not directly related to the company's administration, which started in January.

CMS's role is acting for the joint administrators relating to the investigation into Patisserie Valerie's audits, according to two people with knowledge of the situation.

The issue is intensely secretive, with spokespeople for both CMS and Osborne Clarke declining to comment.

KPMG had been appointed as the administrator to the company and had instructed Gateley on the process. But KPMG's role was passed over to business and restructuring firm FRP Advisory last week (July 26) due to a reported conflict of interest, since the Big Four firm's auditor is Grant Thornton, which is being investigated by the Financial Reporting Council for overseeing Patisserie Valerie's audits while the black hole grew.

It is unclear whether this will affect CMS's or Gateley's roles. An FRP spokesperson said decisions on legal advisers will be taken in due course. Gateley did not provide a comment in time for publication.

Grant Thornton is also a client of Osborne Clarke, with the firm having advised the auditor in 2017 on the £163 million AIM market IPO of Alpha Financial Consulting Group.

The Patisserie Valerie business unit was bought out of administration by Irish private equity firm Causeway Capital in February. Burges Salmon advised Causeway on the deal.