Assystem Betting on Long-Term with Acquisition in India

/ March 8, 2021

Assystem is betting on the long-term with its 99% acquisition of an Indian engineering firm, STUP Consultants. STUP is headquartered in Mumbai, had revenues of approximately EUR 20m and a headcount of 1.1k. It provides transport infrastructure engineering services, mostly around highways, railways, metros, and airports. The company is also present in water treatment and energy engineering.

Icon Acquires PRA to Double its Size

/ February 28, 2021

Icon made a step change in the clinical trials CRO market with its USD 12bn planned PRA Health Sciences acquisition. The purpose of the transaction is scale. With PRA Health Services, Icon will double its size.

DXC Turns Down Atos’ Bid as Low

/ February 6, 2021

Unsurprisingly, DXC Technology turned down Atos’ offer to acquire the firm. DXC considered it, USD 10bn, as reported by Reuters, as too low. The company considers it is going through a turn-around. Also, 16 months into the job, DXC’s CEO, Mike Salvino, believed it was too early to sell the Tysons, VA-based firm.

With Softvision, Cognizant Is Building A New EPAM

/ January 26, 2021

In the past three years, Cognizant has been building Softvision as a new EPAM. Like EPAM, Softvision has grown very fast: Softvision 10-12k employees currently, from 2.8k employees at the time of its acquisition in late 2018.

Charles River Gains Large Molecules Expertise, Targeting Biotechs

/ January 13, 2021

Charles River Labs (CRL) will gain further expertise for biotechs. The company is to acquire San Francisco-based Distributed Bio, a large molecules specialist firm focusing on antibody discovery. Distributed Bio will become part of CRL’s core R&D business, Discovery & Safety Assessment.

UPDATED: Atos Approaches DXC in a USD 10bn Transaction

/ January 7, 2021

Following a Reuters news release, European IT services vendor Atos confirmed it had submitted to the Board of DXC an unsolicited non-binding offer to acquire the firm. The offer is at a preliminary stage. Reuters estimated Atos’ offer to USD 10bn.

Jacobs Spends USD 1.8bn on PA Consulting to Keep It Independent

/ December 2, 2020

Jacobs surprised us with its intention to acquire a 65% stake in PA Consulting for USD 1.8bn (enterprise value of the stake). For those of us that have been in the industry, we know that consulting acquisitions can be risky. Think of EDS and AT Kearney, Capgemini and Ernst & Young Consulting, or IBM and PwC Consulting.

Alten Makes its Largest Acquisition Ever, in Digital

/ November 15, 2020

Alten is to make its largest acquisition, with Milan-headquartered SDG Group. SDG has revenues of EUR 76m and a headcount of 950. Its operating margin is ~10%. We estimate the price paid by Alten to ~EUR 60m.

SII Performed Very Well This Quarter. Really?

/ November 13, 2020

At first glance, SII performed very well during calendar Q3 2020 (corresponding to its Q2 FY21). Revenues were down by only 4.5% yoy at cc/cs. By comparison, Alten’s revenues were down by 19%! SII continued to overperform its French and European peers by a very significant margin.

NNIT Shows A Path to Growth in Pharma

/ November 11, 2020

We rarely talked about Denmark-based NNIT. The company is the former IT captive of Danish pharmaceutical firm Novo Nordisk, thus the name NNIT, which stands for Novo Nordisk IT.

Sweco, Nordics’ Alten, Impressed in Q3!

/ November 7, 2020

The more we get to know Sweco, the more we think it is similar to Alten. Sweco impressed in Q3 2020 by limiting its revenue decline by 2% yoy at cc/cs, to SEK 4,547m (~USD 526m).

Europe Has Entered its Second Lockdown. A Look at Financial Implications

/ November 1, 2020

Europe has now entered its second lockdown. The lockdowns have different restrictions levels and different lengths. The UK and France are running for the full month of November. Officials in the two countries have, however, warned the lockdown might last longer, until Christmas at least.

AFRY Protected Well Its Bottom Line In Q3

/ October 30, 2020

AFRY, once again, protected its bottom line during the pandemic. The company limited its Q3 2020 EBITA margin decline to 40 bps to 6.7%. AFRY reduced its expenses by SEK 480m in Q3, a level similar to QA (SEK 490m).

Wipro Acquires A Semiconductor Engineering Specialist

/ October 15, 2020

Wipro joined many competitors in acquiring a semiconductor engineering specialist. ER&D service vendors are rushing into this market, attracted by its long-term growth potential. Indeed, we estimate to ten the number of semi-conductor M&As since 2015. Altran, through the Aricent, GlobalEdge, and SciConTech transactions, has been the most acquisitive. However, all the industry’s brand names have been active, e.g., Tech Mahindra, HCL Tech, Alten, LTTS, and Cyient.