Accenture Buys Majority Stake in Mortgage-Managing Firm Vivere Brasil

Accenture has acquired a majority stake in Brazilian mortgage-processing technology firm Vivere Brasil Servicos e Solucões, as the global outsourcing giant tries to move deeper into Latin America’s outsourcing market. The acquisition comes with a string of outsourcing contracts, such as processing of loans for financial services firms. Neither company has disclosed the financial details of the deal.

Accenture will take charge of managing the firm but Vivere Brasil’s founders and BTG Pactual –a Brazilian investment bank that acquired a stake in Vivere in October 2011 — will retain a minority stake.

Brazil’s mortgage market is expanding rapidly and is considered  a future source of revenue for outsourcing firms in Latin America. According to the most recent central bank data, mortgage loans in Brazil represent 7.4% of gross domestic product (GDP) – compared with 10% in China, 38.1% in Germany, and 81% in the United States. That means the industry has a great potential of growth in the days ahead.

According to Brazil’s mortgage banking association, the mortgage market is expected to grow to 10% of GDP by 2015, and has experienced 41% compound annual growth since 2007.

“As demand for home loans grows, Brazil’s banks will require ever-greater mortgage-processing capacity, efficiency and quality controls in order to compete,” said Luis Simões, a managing director in Accenture’s financial services practice in Brazil.

Having closed the deal, Accenture will now invest more money to revitalize the acquired firm’s technological know-how and then accomodate it into its mortgage BPO services arm. “By joining forces with Accenture, we gain an opportunity to expand and deliver our technology and processing skills on a much larger scale to help our clients innovate and to support the Brazilian mortgage market as it enters this new era of growth and development,” said Marcos Burattini, president of Vivere Brasil.

Accenture began penetrating the mortgage market in 2011 when it purchased US residential and commercial mortgage processing services, formerly known as Zenta. Last month, the outsourcer acquired Mortgage Cadence, an advanced mortgage loan software provider in the U.S. market. Accenture generated net revenues of US$27.9 billion for the fiscal year that ended Aug. 31, 2012.