Reaping the rewards of a diversification strategy and the will to invest, Accenture boasted record revenue of $31bn (£24bn) in 2015, an 11 per cent increase on the previous year. The global consultancy, technology services and outsourcing giant also delivered new bookings of $34.4bn and returned $3.8bn to its shareholders. This strong performance continued into 2016 and, after raising its full-year revenue forecast following a successful Q1, there seems no stopping the Dublin-incorporated company.
Leadership team
CEO and chairman Pierre Nanterme has been at the helm since 2011. Nanterme has enjoyed an expansive career at Accenture in a number of roles since he joined the company in 1983. His leadership team includes 11 independent directors led by former Citigroup CEO of the global consumer group, Marjorie Magner.
In-house team
Chad Jerdee was promoted from deputy general counsel to general counsel in June 2015, replacing Julia Sweet, who was made chief executive for North America. Jerdee, a former associate at now-defunct Rider Bennett, was also made chief compliance officer and sits on Accenture’s global management committee. Jerdee is joined by deputy general counsel Patrick Rowe who has been at Accenture since 1995 after spending five years as a senior associate at Australian firm Clayton Utz.
Andrew Haire is managing director of legal for UK and Ireland with responsibility for overseeing transactions in the UK, Ireland, France and Benelux and Nordic regions. Haire joined the global outsourcing sales legal team at Accenture in 2007 and sits on the UK and Ireland management board.
Former Cravath Swaine & Moore associate Joel Unruch is associate general counsel for M&A, governance and corporate matters. Following the internal restructuring after the appointment of Jerdee Unruch took on additional responsibility as corporate secretary and now serves as an adviser to the board on corporate governance.
Rachel Armstrong, a former CMS Cameron McKenna senior associate, is chief legal adviser to the global security and cyber security business after joining as a senior transactional lawyer. The legal team also includes senior litigation counsel for the Americas and former Sidley Austin partner Brandon Lawniczak together with former Kirkland & Ellis partner Courtney Holohan, chief intellectual property counsel and associate general counsel.
Karianne Kas, global lead for employment law, is joined by Baker & McKenzie, RPC and Travers Smith alumnus Richard Phillips, who is director of employment across Europe, Middle East, Africa and Latin America. Meanwhile, former Miller & Martin associate Bob Goldman heads employment in North America.
Deal activity
With just under 60 deals, according to LMI data, 2015 saw a high level of transactional activity for Accenture. Contributing to the company’s strong performance was an emphasis on technological innovations including digital, cloud and security services. These three areas formed the bulk of Accenture’s deal activity and have come to dominate its investments.
In line with this focus and in a bid to strengthen its cloud capabilities in Europe, 2015 saw Accenture take over Madrid-based cloud consultancy Solium. In September the company acquired Cloud Sherpas, a provider of cloud advisory services for brands including Google and Salesforce. As part of the $400m deal, which saw Accenture become a leading cloud services provider, the company instructed Kirkland, with a team led by New York corporate partner Sarkis Jebejian.
Also in 2015 Accenture boosted its digital capabilities in the US after buying supplier to the US federal government Agilex Technologies.
In addition to deal activity in the US, where Accenture has seen strong growth driven by consultancy, it has seen activity rise in China and the Asia-Pacific. In July 2015 it acquired Hong Kong-based digital agency PacificLink Group
In 2015 Accenture entered into partnerships with BP, Deutsche Bank, Rio Tinto, Telefónica, Visa and UniCredit, and continues to enjoy client relationships with the world’s biggest companies.
According to LMI data Accenture’s only divestment in 2015 was of subsidiary and provider of business solutions Navitaire to Madrid-headquartered IT provider Amadeus, in an $830m deal.
The deal activity pace continued into 2016, with partnership agreements with Specsavers and insurance giant RSA. Meanwhile in March Accenture also entered into a joint venture with private equity firm Apax to advance digital innovation in insurance software.
External advisers
LMI data shows that Accenture has instructed a range of firms, including Allen & Overy, for M&A work. However, for M&A it generally seems to favour firms outside the magic circle, having in the past used Baker Botts, Bakers, DLA Piper, Hogan Lovells and Kirkland. Another firm to have advised Accenture on M&A is Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, the firm that advised the company on its IPO in 2001.
For joint ventures LMI data indicates that Accenture has instructed Skadden, while for litigation work it has used Proskauer Rose. In Latin America it has turned to Machado Meyer Sendacz e Opice Advogados.