Morgan McKinley to acquire Cork outsourcing firm Abtran

Each business to keep their established brand identities

Aisling Deasy, CEO of Abtran and Gerald Fitzgerald, CEO of Morgan McKinley. The firms are joining in order to expand in Ireland and globally.

Professional services and recruitment firm Morgan McKinley is to acquire the Cork-based outsourcing firm Abtran in order to expand globally.

The combination of the firms is being achieved through the acquisition of the entire share capital of Abtran by Morgan McKinley. The companies have not disclosed the terms of the deal.

The combined businesses will employ approximately 2,500 people with projected annual revenues of over €300m and will be run by the current leadership team.

Both companies were founded in Cork. Morgan McKinley, an executive recruitment group was founded in 1988 by Pat Fitzgerald. He also co-founded Abtran with his brother Michael Fitzgerald.

Abtran holds a range of private and public contracts including the operation of helpline services for the Revenue and Electric Ireland. Abtran was also contracted by the HSE this year to assist with contact tracing connected to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Most recently, Abtran staff in Cork and Sligo took donations from television viewers of the Late Late Toy Show

The acquisition by Morgan McKinley requires the approval of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission and is expected to be completed in the coming months. Each business will keep their established brand identities and retain all senior leadership, executive management teams and staff.

The CEO of Morgan McKinley, Gerald Fitzgerald (no relation to Pat and Michael) has been announced as the Global CEO of the combined holding company. Abtran CEO Aisling Deasy and her leadership team will continue to lead the growth of the Abtran business process outsourcing business.