ÅF Makes Acquisition in Nuclear Safety and Reassures on M&A Strategy after its Testing Acquisition in May
ÅF has acquired Facilia, a Swedish firm specialized in assessing safety for nuclear waste and nuclear plant decommissioning. Facilia is a small firm with 14 FTEs, and revenues of SEK 18.5m (USD 2m). Its client base includes tier-one Swedish firms such as Vattenfall, France’s EDF, and the International Atomic Energy Agency. The company also has several software products, including elearning tools. Cross-selling is a priority on the agenda, as one would expect, with Facilia bringing a specialized offering that it can sell to ÅF’s Energy Division client base.
This acquisition makes sense for several reasons.
First, it brings a small but highly-specialized team on a topic that has long-term potential. Nuclear plant decommissioning is part of the political agenda and indeed may be delayed by different governments, but nuclear waste is an immediate priority.
Second, it will help ÅF’s Energy Division change its service portfolio towards offerings in demand, away from fossil fuel plant engineering.
Third, ÅF is back to investing in its core business, after the May acquisition of Konsultbolag1, a Swedish quality assurance/software testing services vendor. With this acquisition, ÅF is moving into mainstream IT services. Not only that: ÅF is moving into Indian delivery-based IT services. IT services are not the core business of ÅF, and the company, for its Digital Division, would benefit from sticking to digital technologies that are relevant to its activities, i.e., BIM and IoT in Infrastructure Division, and IoT, digital twins, MoM/MES for its Industry Division.
Apart from this one-off, ÅF’s M&A strategy has been consistent over the years. So let’s not spoil the party, and say to ÅF: “keep on with the good work.”