Deloitte acquires asset management advisory firm Bluefield
Deloitte has purchased Bluefield, a specialised asset management advisory firm to the mining sector and other heavy industries.
Continuing the string of recent acquisitions among the local arms of the Big Four, Deloitte Australia has announced its purchase of Brisbane-headquartered Bluefield, which specialises in optimising the full life-cycle of assets. Deloitte states that the transaction – which was made for an undisclosed sum – will see it become a “true one-stop-shop for comprehensive, top to bottom asset management services”.
“Our business was established to deliver practical outcomes for our clients and we have become the market leaders in this area,” said Bluefield Managing Director Gerard Wood. “It’s very clear that passion is an asset shared with Deloitte, and this is a move that creates the logical partner of choice for asset intensive industries, and connects our Bluefield clients with the breadth of other services offered by Delolitte.”
Wood, along with senior Bluefield leaders Drew Hislop, general manager for growth, and Steve Flannery, general manager for operations, will join the Deloitte partnership when the team formally crosses at the beginning of next month. Together the trio bring over 90 years worth of local and international asset management or related industry experience to the firm, while altogether Bluefield has a staff of around 90 across Australia.
Established by Wood in 2010 (following a stint as a global practice leader for maintenance with BHP), and since growing to every major Australian capital city, Bluefield provides its clients with advisory services covering the full asset life-cycle, including equipment strategy and planning, analysis and optimisation, maintenance and reliability improvements, through to ultimately decommissioning.
“All operators in heavy asset-exposed industries are looking at automation and improving yields on assets employed,” said Deloitte’s Transformation & Operations lead, Rob Spittle. “The Bluefield team brings deep industry expertise and technical capability, focused on delivering solutions that put tools in the hands of maintainers, engineers and lessors that enable them to increase capital efficiency and deliver long-term value from their assets.
Spittle, a partner within Deloitte’s consulting team, also referenced a specialised data analytics tool developed by Bluefield which enables early notification and maintenance intervention of emerging issues in large plant and equipment, increasing overall asset productivity and reliability.
According to a recent report by Roland Berger, the market for ‘predictive maintenance of assets’ is expected to grow by double-digits in the coming years.
“Bluefield’s tool is a real differentiator, and an offering that can help deliver tangible value to our existing, combined and future clients,” Spittle added.
The purchase is the latest in a series of acquisitions by Deloitte since CEO Adam Powick took office in April, including the pick up of managed cloud services provider Sliced Tech only last week. Since June, the firm has also bolted on infrastructure advisory PDS Group, healthcare sector consultancy Paxton Partners, and added innovation, strategy and venture building consultancy Fusion Labs to its Deloitte Monitor brand.
