Arthur D. Little today announces that it successfully completed its Management Buy-Out (“MBO”) with Altran Technologies on 30th December, 2011. In its 125th anniversary year, the world’s first management consulting firm has once again become a Global Private Partnership, with 100{e1f18614b95d3cd6e4b3128e1cd15d99b042a60a5a19c19b7a8e07e7495efa10} of the ownership of the company now held by its Partners. The MBO deal involves all of its offices worldwide and includes the prestigious Arthur D. Little brand.
Since the 2nd November announcement by Altran, that it had entered into an exclusive negotiation of an MBO led sale of Arthur D. Little to its Partners, the firm has been actively and successfully preparing its new independent Global Private Partnership. The financial commitment required from the Partners has been oversubscribed and Altran Technologies will be providing vendor financing to support the company’s development in the coming months and years.
The firm will be led by a newly elected global CEO, Ignacio GARCIA ALVES, leader of the MBO team that successfully managed the acquisition of Arthur D. Little by its Partners.
“I am honored by the trust and confidence of the Partners and am very excited by the prospect of leading this firm into the next stage of its rich history. Our objective with the MBO is twofold: 1) Taking the firm’s destiny and governance back in the hands of the Partners; 2) Accelerating growth by attracting key talents or aggregating smaller firms in targeted industries, functions and countries” declaredIgnacio GARCIA ALVES, the new Global CEO.
Mr. Thomas Kuruvilla will continue to be responsible for managing Arthur D. Little’s operations in the Middle East and South East Asia Regions.
Commenting on the general outlook for consulting in the region and Arthur D. Little’s role within the sphere, Mr. Kuruvilla said: “Arthur D. Little has a long and treasured history of working in the region on critical assignments in the public and private sectors for over 35 years. In line with other mature markets, the consulting market in the region has undergone massive change over the past few years. Clients have increasingly matured and expect genuine value add from their advisors. This includes, sharing of risks and returns from advise originating from consulting partners. With the firm ‘exclusively’ owned by the consulting Partners, Arthur D. Little Middle East South East Asia (MESEA) will now be in a position to provide services with an in-built risk and reward sharing fees structure. We expect this model to enable our clients to mitigate their risks, courtesy reduced downside that would otherwise have existed in a purely fixed fee based advice model. The global nature, of the MBO will ensure collaboration across geographies and allow our clients to benefit from genuine ‘value adding advice’ grounded in ‘best practices’ employed by industry peers across the world.”
The positioning of Arthur D. Little will be centred on its historical core of Innovation, offering its unparalleled and unique value proposition of linking Strategy, Innovation, and Technology. In the current global economy, this value proposition is the only way companies and countries can improve their sustained competitiveness. This is true in Europe and the USA where new growth platforms are desperately needed as well as in fast growing economies, such as BRIC countries, that seek to catch-up and move into innovative, added-value products and services.
Arthur D. Little will continue to launch new proprietary Innovation Labs that explore future Mega Trends from a multi-disciplinary point of view. The first such lab has recently released its research report into The Future of Urban Mobility, which has already been widely acclaimed.
About Arthur D. Little
Founded in 1886 as the world’s first consulting firm, Arthur D. Little has continually transformed business thinking and practice by applying its expertise in the areas of strategy, technology and innovation. Today, Arthur D. Little helps companies to create growth, overcome strategic challenges, improve innovation capabilities, and increase efficiency and competitiveness in a globalised marketplace. Arthur D. Little has a global footprint in 20 countries with a network of over 1,000 people.
