Accenture Streamlines Real Estate and Realigns Workforce to Position Company for Future Growth

Continuing the execution of its strategy to drive future growth and profitability, Accenture (NYSE:ACN) is taking steps to reduce excess real estate capacity and to realign its workforce. These actions will result in a pre-tax restructuring charge of approximately $247 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009, ending Aug. 31.

Approximately $119 million of the charge is related primarily to the reduction of excess office space globally, which will increase the productivity of the company’s fixed cost base and generate ongoing savings.

Approximately $128 million of the charge is for severance and related costs of workforce actions, primarily at the senior-executive level, which are designed to ensure that the company’s global workforce is properly aligned to best serve the evolving needs of its clients and its business. Accenture said that these actions will reduce its senior-executive ranks by approximately 7 percent.

“As part of our drive to deliver high performance — both for Accenture and for our clients — and the implementation of our comprehensive human capital strategy, which defines our global talent and leadership models, we are acting boldly to better position Accenture for both short-term economic improvement and for long-term growth and profitability,” said William D. Green, Accenture’s chairman & CEO. “In addition to continuing to manage Accenture with great discipline in a challenging environment, we’re taking proactive steps to ensure that we have the right cost structure to support our business going forward and that our organization is properly aligned to most effectively capture future growth opportunities. At the same time, we’re making strategic investments in high-value growth areas that will enable us to extend our leadership in the market.

“The realignment of our senior-executive workforce will help ensure that Accenture has the right people, skills and capabilities, at the right levels and in the right places. The affected executives are highly skilled and valued professionals, and we will be working with them, as appropriate, to help them find new opportunities outside of Accenture that take advantage of their experience and expertise.”

The company expects the space reductions to be completed by the end of the current fiscal year and the workforce actions to be substantially completed during the first quarter of fiscal year 2010.

Accenture continues to expect net revenues for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009 to be in the range of $5.0 billion to $5.2 billion. The pre-tax restructuring charge includes approximately $22 million of non-cash asset impairments principally related to the global consolidation of excess office space. The remaining $225 million comprises cash-related expenditures primarily for workforce- and office-lease-related costs, the majority of which will affect the company’s cash flows in the first quarter of fiscal 2010. The charge, which will be reflected on a separate line item above operating income entitled “Restructuring Cost and Reorganization Benefit” on the company’s consolidated income statement, is expected to have a negative impact of approximately 110 basis points on its operating margin for the full 2009 fiscal year. Absent the impact of the restructuring charge, the company continues to expect operating margin for the full fiscal year to be, as it has previously stated, at the lower end of its guided range of 13.4 percent to 13.7 percent. The company expects the restructuring charge to reduce EPS for both the fourth quarter and full 2009 fiscal year by $0.24.

About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. With approximately 177,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries, the company generated net revenues of US$23.39 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2008. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

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