About 130 PwC Australia partners and about 1750 staff, mainly from the firm’s embattled government consulting arm, will move to a new company, codenamed Bell, as part of a proposed buyout by private equity investor Allegro Funds priced at just $1.

The risky and ambitious plan, which is yet to be signed but has the in-principal agreement of PwC’s global leaders, involves the creation of a new as-yet-unnamed company that will have about $300 million in theoretical billings and which only provides consulting services to public sector organisations.