Schoenherr has advised the sellers on the sale of ARZ Allgemeines Rechenzentrum to Accenture. Baker McKenzie advised the buyer.
The transaction remains contingent on regulatory approval.
According to Schoenherr, the acquisition will expand Accenture’s cloud-based banking platform-as-a-service offerings for banking clients across Europe.
ARZ is a technology service provider focused on the banking sector in Austria, with offices in Vienna and Innsbruck. The company is majority-owned by the Volksbanken group and the Hypobanken sector, as well as other private banks.
Accenture is a professional services company providing services in areas including digital, cloud, and security in more than 120 countries.
"Our vision is to develop an innovative cloud-based banking platform-as-a-service offering for new and existing clients across Europe," Accenture Senior Managing Director Roland Smertnig commented. "By acquiring ARZ, we are expanding our digital transformation capabilities to help banks of the future as they look to move more of their core functions to the cloud, enable new business models, and reinvent the services and experiences they provide to customers."
"With this acquisition, we are expanding our team in Austria and will develop a comprehensive center of excellence at the Innsbruck location to serve our clients in Austria and across Europe," Accenture Country Managing Partner Michael Zettel added.
The Schoenherr team was led by Partner Sascha Hoedl and included Associates Joseph Moser and Stefan Dietrich.
The Baker McKenzie team was led by Vienna-based Partner Gerhard Hermann and Counsel Claudia Fochtmann-Tischler and included Partners Philipp Maier, Lukas Feiler, and Andreas Traugott, Counsels Robert Wippel and Wolfgang Eigner, and Associates Teresa Stuttler, Ladislav Bulajcsik, Mariella Neidhart, Klara Kastner, Victoria Fink, Martina Grama, Silvia Grohmann, Alexander Hofmann, Michaela Petsche, Balint Oszvar, Filip Peric, Katerina Schenkova, Nina Lenhard, Daniel Larcher, and Abanoub Abd El Malak, as well as Frankfurt-based Partner Peter Wand and Associates Denise Tayler, Susanne Milne, Tobias Born, and Anna-Lena Busser.
Accenture's in-house team included DACH Region Legal Director Marco Lechner and Accenture Austria Head of Legal Mathias Brandauer.
