It has emerged that PiRho Investment Consulting, the advisory boutique led by Phil Irvine and Nicola Ralston, played a key role in BT Investment Management’s £209m takeover of J O Hambro Capital Management, which was named this week as Financial News’ asset management deal of the year.

Australia's BTIM used PiRho to provide intelligence on the best boutiques to buy in Europe, drawing up a list of which candidates would make the best fit -- as opposed to those known to be up for sale.