Accenture (NYSE:ACN) has agreed to acquire a majority stake in Vivere
Brasil Serviços e Soluções S.A. (Vivere Brasil), a leading
mortgage-processing technology company, partly owned by BTG Pactual. The
acquisition is designed to expand Accenture’s mortgage-processing
technology and services capabilities to help Brazilian banks increase
their efficiencies and capacity for processing loans in the country’s
rapidly expanding mortgage market.
Upon closing of the acquisition, Accenture will hold majority ownership
and have management responsibility for Vivere Brasil. Vivere Brasil’s
founders and BTG Pactual – a leading Brazilian investment bank, which
acquired a stake in Vivere Brazil in October 2011 – will retain a
strategic minority stake in Vivere Brasil upon closing.
Through its investment in Vivere Brasil, Accenture intends to expand its
mortgage-services capabilities in Brazil, where the mortgage industry is
developing rapidly. According to the most recent central bank data,
mortgage loans in Brazil represent 7.4 percent of gross domestic product
(GDP) – compared with 10 percent in China, 38.1 percent in Germany, 40.3
percent in Japan, 41.6 percent in France, 70.2 percent in the United
Kingdom, and 81 percent in the United States. According to Brazil’s
mortgage banking association, the mortgage market is expected to grow to
10 percent of GDP by 2015, and has experienced 41 percent compound
annual growth since 2007.
“As demand for home loans grows, Brazil’s banks will require
ever-greater mortgage-processing capacity, efficiency and quality
controls in order to compete,” said Luis Simões, a managing director in
Accenture’s financial services practice in Brazil. “By investing in and
further developing and innovating Vivere Brasil’s industry-leading
technology, and then combining it with Accenture Credit Services’
mortgage business process outsourcing capabilities, we intend to create
a leading provider of mortgage processing services in Brazil.”
“Like Accenture, Vivere’s success is the result of the deep talent and
industry expertise of its people,” said Marcos Burattini, president of
Vivere Brasil. “By joining forces with Accenture, we gain an opportunity
to expand and deliver our technology and processing skills on a much
larger scale to help our clients innovate and to support the Brazilian
mortgage market as it enters this new era of growth and development.”
Accenture is one of the leading mortgage-processing providers in the
United States. By combining Vivere Brasil’s leading technology with
Accenture Credit Services’ global mortgage-processing and consulting
expertise, Accenture will be better positioned to help banks in Brazil
increase their mortgage-processing capacity, achieve greater
efficiencies, and improve their quality and risk controls.
Accenture has significantly expanded its global mortgage industry
capabilities since its 2011 launch of Accenture
Credit Services – a business service within Accenture’s financial
services operating group that offers full-service consulting, technology
and outsourcing services to large lenders – and through several
strategic acquisitions. Last month, Accenture announced that it has
acquired Mortgage Cadence, an advanced mortgage loan origination
software provider in the U.S. market. In 2011, it acquired a leading
provider of residential and commercial mortgage processing services in
the U.S., formerly known as Zenta.
Accenture Credit Services supports institutions in the residential
mortgage, commercial real estate, leasing and automotive finance
industries. It serves more than 100 major lending institutions worldwide.
“By modernizing their technologies and tapping new processing models,
lenders have an opportunity to make significant gains as the emerging
markets mature and the mature markets recover,” said Terry Moore, global
managing director of Accenture Credit Services. “Accenture Credit
Services is expanding globally to help our clients pursue these
opportunities around the world.”
Accenture’s acquisition of Vivere Brasil is subject to customary closing
conditions and regulatory approvals. Financial details are not being
disclosed.
About Accenture
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and
outsourcing company, with approximately 266,000 people serving clients
in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience,
comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions,
and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies,
Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance
businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of
US$27.9 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2012. Its home page
is www.accenture.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
Except for the historical information and discussions contained herein,
statements in this news release may constitute forward-looking
statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve a number of risks,
uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to
differ materially from those expressed or implied. These include,
without limitation, risks that: the company and Vivere Brasil will not
be able to close the transaction in the time period anticipated, or at
all, which is dependent on the parties’ ability to satisfy certain
closing conditions; the transaction might not achieve the anticipated
benefits for the company; the company’s results of operations could be
adversely affected by volatile, negative or uncertain economic
conditions and the effects of these conditions on the company’s clients’
businesses and levels of business activity; the company’s business
depends on generating and maintaining ongoing, profitable client demand
for the company’s services and solutions, and a significant reduction in
such demand could materially affect the company’s results of operations;
if the company is unable to keep its supply of skills and resources in
balance with client demand around the world and attract and retain
professionals with strong leadership skills, the company’s business, the
utilization rate of the company’s professionals and the company’s
results of operations may be materially adversely affected; the
consulting and outsourcing markets are highly competitive, and the
company might not be able to compete effectively; the company’s results
of operations (including its net revenues and operating income) and the
value of balance-sheet items originally denominated in other currencies
could be materially adversely affected by unfavorable fluctuations in
foreign currency exchange rates or changes to existing currencies; the
company could have liability or the company’s reputation could be
damaged if the company fails to protect client and company data or
information systems as obligated by law or contract or if the company’s
information systems are breached; the company’s Global Delivery Network
is increasingly concentrated in India and the Philippines, which may
expose it to operational risks; as a result of the company’s
geographically diverse operations and its growth strategy to continue
geographic expansion, the company is more susceptible to certain risks;
the company’s results of operations could materially suffer if the
company is not able to obtain sufficient pricing to enable it to meet
its profitability expectations; if the company’s pricing estimates do
not accurately anticipate the cost, risk and complexity of the company
performing its work or third parties upon which it relies do not meet
their commitments, then the company’s contracts could have delivery
inefficiencies and be unprofitable; the company’s work with government
clients exposes the company to additional risks inherent in the
government contracting environment, including risks related to
governmental budget and debt constraints; the company’s business could
be materially adversely affected if it incurs legal liability in
connection with providing its services and solutions; the company’s
results of operations and ability to grow could be materially negatively
affected if the company cannot adapt and expand its services and
solutions in response to ongoing changes in technology and offerings by
new entrants; outsourcing services subject the company to different
operational risks than its consulting and systems integration services;
the company’s services or solutions could infringe upon the intellectual
property rights of others or the company might lose its ability to
utilize the intellectual property of others; the company has only a
limited ability to protect its intellectual property rights, which are
important to the company’s success; the company’s ability to attract and
retain business and employees may depend on its reputation in the
marketplace; the company’s alliance relationships may not be successful
or may change, which could adversely affect the company’s results of
operations; the company may not be successful at identifying, acquiring
or integrating other businesses; the company’s profitability could
suffer if its cost-management strategies are unsuccessful, and the
company may not be able to improve its profitability through
improvements to cost-management to the degree it has done in the past;
many of the company’s contracts include performance payments that link
some of its fees to the attainment of performance or business targets
and/or require the company to meet specific service levels, which could
increase the variability of the company’s revenues and impact its
margins; changes in the company’s level of taxes, and audits,
investigations and tax proceedings, or changes in the company’s
treatment as an Irish company, could have a material adverse effect on
the company’s results of operations and financial condition; if the
company is unable to manage the organizational challenges associated
with its size, the company might be unable to achieve its business
objectives; if the company is unable to collect its receivables or
unbilled services, the company’s results of operations, financial
condition and cash flows could be adversely affected; the company’s
share price and results of operations could fluctuate and be difficult
to predict; the company’s results of operations and share price could be
adversely affected if it is unable to maintain effective internal
controls; the company may be subject to criticism and negative publicity
related to its incorporation in Ireland; as well as the risks,
uncertainties and other factors discussed under the “Risk Factors”
heading in Accenture plc’s most recent annual report on Form 10-K and
other documents filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange
Commission. Statements in this news release speak only as of the date
they were made, and Accenture undertakes no duty to update any
forward-looking statements made in this news release or to conform such
statements to actual results or changes in Accenture’s expectations.
Copyright Business Wire 2013