Deloitte has poached the former head of Investec's debt advisory team, Nick Soper, for its own practice, a hire that reflects the growing onus professional services firms are putting on bulking up such capabilities.

Soper will focus on advising mid-market UK companies on raising new banking facilities, refinancing and finding cash in the capital markets.

As head of Investec's debt advisory, he worked on £50m to £500m debt packages for mid-market businesses and before that spent six years advising for KPMG.

Over the past year Deloitte's 20-man debt team has advised on more than 50 transactions with combined debt facilities in excess of £5bn.

Two weeks ago BDO announced that it had launched its own debt advisory arm to work with private equity-owned, private and listed companies, and hired Deloitte old hand Ross McDonald to run the new business.