Matching Contribution for New Acquisition (Can It Be Different Than Entire Company?)

Good morning everyone, thanks in advance for the help.

We have a client that is looking to acquire another practice.  As part of the agreement, the group being acquired wants them to provide a matching contribution for the first year.  This is a non-Safe Harbor Plan, but does allow for a discretionary matching contribution.

There are no Highly-Compensated Employees included in the group being acquired.  No matching contribution is being made to the group as a whole.

Since there is no match and no HCE, I don't see an issue from a testing standpoint as the HCE would be 0%.

So would I be right to say that there is no issue with giving this small group a discretionary match as long as there remains no matching to the rest of the company as a whole?

Yes, provided the discretionary matching contribution provisions in the plan document support doing that.