In between advising clients on how to manage staff from home (phone them) and helping them emerge fight fit from the COVID-19 pandemic (cut costs, keep close to customers), Accenture's management consultants appear to be stepping into the world of deals.
Accenture appears to be stepping into the world of deals and says it has "an opportunity in the oil and gas space in Australia".
In one of the more surprising requests to hit infrastructure fund-types' inboxes in recent weeks, was a note from Accenture that reads very much like an investment bankers' pitch.
Accenture says it has "an opportunity in the oil and gas space in Australia", according to the pitch, and a client that wants to "share assets across the supply chain" with a like-minded capital partner.
The consultants said they were running a process to help the client determine how to finance and address its capital restructuring, and was calling for expressions of interest from deep pocketed potential investors.
While there was no mention of the client - or where in the oil and gas sector to find its $1 billion-plus pile of assets - it sounds like there's a deal to be done and Accenture would be the one trying to broker it.
It would be new ground for a big consulting firm to be arranging deals. While it's not uncommon to see an Accenture or McKinsey involved in M&A, their roles are usually around formulating and implementing business strategies for asset buyers and sellers or helping with organisational change, rather than bringing buyers and sellers to the negotiating table.
Accenture's consultant charge of the project and its media spokeswoman didn't want to say much when contacted by Street Talk.
Sourced fromFinancial Review - written by Sarah Thompson, Anthony Macdonald, and Tim Boyd