Accenture acquires aviation consulting business of Seabury
Accenture has acquired the aviation consulting businesses of Seabury. The addition sees around 120 professionals transfer to Accenture, and boosts the firm's presence in the aviation restructuring and management advisory space.
Founded in 1995, Seabury Group – through its two principal businesses, Seabury Advisory Group (SAG) and Seabury Capital – offers a range of management consulting and financial advisory services to clients in Aviation, Aerospace & Defense, Transportation, and related industries. The firm has a team of around 200 professionals on five continents.
John Luth, Seabury's CEO, recently revealed that the consultancy has spun-off its aviation consulting arm – one of the firm's largest practices, to Accenture, one of the globe's largest professional services firms. The business will be integrated into Accenture’s global aviation practice, adding additional capacity in the area of restructuring distressed aviation companies as well as a consulting practice focused on fleet, network, commercial, maintenance, airports, cargo and human capital improvements. Roughly 120 professionals across the US (the firm's headquarter is based in New York), Europe and Asia are set to transfer to Accenture.
According to Sander van ‘t Noordende, Group Chief Executive of Accenture’s Products operating group, the deal, in particular, better positions Accenture to deliver key digitalisation improvements to its aviation clients globally. “With digital transformation forcing the aviation industry to rethink its business and operating models, we expect continued strong demand for consulting services in this industry. This acquisition will enhance our ability to accelerate the pace of transformation our clients need and to deliver the industry-specific strategies that our clients are increasingly seeking to drive competitiveness and differentiation.”
Luth adds that the joining of forces will better position Seabury's arm to provide a more integrated portfolio to its clients. “Seabury aims to deliver significant value to the airline industry through a combination of industry expertise, analytical techniques, data and proven tools. Our combined business marks an important step for the aviation industry by bringing innovation enhancements to market with speed and agility.
The remaining units of Seabury – its investment banking, asset management and software solutions to other industries – will remain to operate independently.
Last year Accenture struck a similar carve-out deal with Kurt Salmon: the listed consulting giant bought the retail consulting practices of the firm – the remaining parts of Kurt Salmon's business were picked up earlier by Solucom, which today operates as Wavestone.
