More Diversification And Sustainability Ahead For Ricardo

/ November 1, 2021

Ricardo announced in September its priorities for the years to come: further client diversification, a focus on Asia and North America, a continued refresh of its service portfolio, and sustainability in all its forms. These priorities are very much in line with Ricardo’s strategy in the past few years.

Will Alten Be A Significant Clinical Trials CRO?

/ August 31, 2021

ER&D services largest pure-play, Alten, has ambitions as a clinical trials contract research organization (CRO). During Q2 2021, the company completed the acquisition of Cmed. Cmed, a clinical trial CRO based in the UK. It is a small firm with EUR 20m in revenues and 180 consultants. It has specialized in oncology, immuno-oncology, cell therapy, and rare disease.

Sweco: Is Sustainability Good Enough?

/ July 21, 2021

Sweco had a relatively mild financial performance in Q2 2021 with a 2% yoy growth at cc/cs to SEK 5,643m (USD 649m). The company did not benefit from favorable comps (Q2 2020: +2% yoy at cc/cs). Sweco suffered from its lower utilization rate and headcount

Nuclear Engineering Remains Promising for Assystem

/ March 17, 2021

Nuclear engineering remains promising for Assystem. Revenues of nuclear engineering proved slightly more resilient during 2020 (with a 4.2% revenue decline at cc/cs) than the company itself (-5.3%). In H1 2020, the activity was impacted by the lockdown in Europe, as nuclear engineering requires a higher level of onsite work than ER&D services. Revenues bounced back in H2, reaching a slight organic growth.

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.

Ricardo Suffers from its Exposure to Automotive in FY20

/ September 14, 2020

Ricardo paid the price for its exposure to the automotive sector, which represents 55% of total revenues. After a stable H1 FY20 (the ending June 30, 2020), H2 collapsed with revenues down 23% at cc/cs (our estimate). Surprisingly, Ricardo performed worse than an automotive pure-play such as EDAG (-14.8% during the same period) and Akka (-20.3% at cc/cs).

Assystem Bounced Back in June

/ August 29, 2020

As expected, Assystem suffered in Q2 2020: revenues declined by 13.7% yoy CC/CS during the quarter. Staffing was down by 16.3%, while Energy & Infrastructure did somewhat better (-13.3%). The core nuclear engineering business was down by 10.1% (our estimate).

Tuck-In Acquisitions Continue Despite the Stock Markets Melt-Down

/ March 11, 2020

Despite the stock market melt-down, ER&D vendors have continued to make tuck-in acquisitions in the past two weeks. The acquired firms were of small size and not likely to impact the net debt of their new owners. However, should the Covid-19-China-US trade-war-Stock Markets meltdown-oil price crisis degenerate into a recession, we expect suck tuck-in acquisitions to become scarce.

Accenture Acquires Two Firms in October YTD

/ October 20, 2019

It has been almost three years since Accenture launched Industry X.0, and we estimate that Accenture acquired nine competitors in these 36 months. The pace is accelerating with Accenture having five competitors in 2019, YTD.

Cognizant wins a large PES contract at AVEVA

/ May 11, 2019

ERDservices.org rarely reports about Cognizant, the NJ-headquartered but India-centric IT services giant in the space of ER&D services. Despite its size (2018 revenues of USD 16.1bn) and high-growth, Cognizant is little-visible in the ER&D area and is not a significant player in this industry.

Ricardo renews and expands its engine manufacturing contract with McLaren

/ February 21, 2019

British ER&D service vendor Ricardo has renewed and expanded its engine manufacturing contract with McLaren. The company will manufacture engines for McLaren’s Track 25 plan. McLaren is expanding its car portfolio and as part of Track 25, will design 18 new models or derivatives of existing models.

Belcan continues to acquire in the UK

/ February 4, 2019

Belcan made its second acquisition in the UK, since it was taken over by PE AE Industrial Partners. The acquired firm is Sitec, through its two units Sitec Design and Sitec Recruitment.