Capital Consulting and Roland Berger win ONEE tender
Morocco’s national utility company for electricity and water has hired management consulting firms Roland Berger and Capital Consulting to design a performance improvement plan, and guide the public sector company through the initial stages of synergy realisation.
In 2011 a law was approved by the Moroccan parliament which stipulated the merger between Morocco’s leading electricity supplier [the National Office of Electricity (ONE)] and the country’s main drinking water supplier [the National office of Drinking Water (ONEP)]. The rationale behind the combination was to generate synergies through the extension of economies of scale in services, billing and maintenance, already being achieved in larger cities, to the country as a whole. While the two public sector entities were legally wedded to form the Office National de l'Electricité et de l'Eau Potable (ONEE) in 2011, the years following have so far not produced all the expected benefits. “Despite the conceptual and methodological work done, the pace of implementation relating to the first identified synergies remains below expectations,” acknowledged ONEE earlier this year.
In July ONEE’s management team therefore put out a tender for a professional services firm that would work with the two utility providers to identify and implement synergies. Several offers were received, and following a due diligence on project bids, Roland Berger and Capital Consulting won the tender, a deal worth a reported £300,000. Roland Berger will staff the project with consultants from its local base in Casablanca*, complemented by experts from its Paris hub, while Morocco-based consultancy Capital Consulting will leverage its teams in Casablanca and Rabat**.
The work of the two consulting firms will focus mainly on uncovering synergies in finance, human resources and information systems, as well as improving operational performance and governance. The project will last a year and has a value of 4.5 million dirhams (around £300,000).
* Roland Berger has been operating in Morocco since 2003, an office was opened in 2008.
** Capital Consulting was founded in 1998 and has 200 employees across offices in Casablanca, Rabat, Paris and Tunis. The firm expanded significantly in recent years with the acquisitions of IT consulting firm Archos Technology (acquired in 2010) and Urbasoft (purchased in 2011).
