PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) corporate finance, the investment banking arm of the consulting and accountancy firm, has hired Serge Desprat to capitalise on the banking consolidation in central & eastern Europe.

Desprat will head a team of ten PwC financial services advisers operating out of PwC regional head office in Prague, as well as Warsaw and Budapest. He will report to Adam Thynne, PwC's head of investment banking for the region.