M&A blog Aug: One dozen deals incl. an SCD Advisory transaction

2. Bain & Company acquires Max Kelsen’s consulting and managed services divisions

Bain & Company acquires Max Kelsen’s consulting and managed services divisions to bring enhanced machine learning and AI services to clients globally. Deal strengthens Bain’s global ML, cloud, data & app engineering capabilities. Bain & Company today announced that it has acquired Max Kelsen’s consulting and managed services divisions (collectively referred to as “Max Kelsen Consulting”), a provider of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) solutions, to offer enhanced ML and AI capabilities to clients across the globe. Based in Australia and founded in 2015, Max Kelsen Consulting’s team of full stack ML engineers deliver ML systems, AI-powered applications, and advisory services for clients. Now, as one unified and integrated team under Bain’s Advanced Analytics Group (AAG), Max Kelsen Consulting and Bain will together help enterprises develop and operationalize high-impact AI and ML enabled use cases.

3. ConnellGriffin Acquires IN4 Advisory – a game-changing development in the infrastructure advisory industry

ConnellGriffin, along with their growth partner Pemba Capital Partners, has successfully acquired IN4 Advisory, a distinguished boutique infrastructure advisory company. This strategic acquisition marks a significant milestone in their journey towards becoming Australia’s premier infrastructure advisor, offering comprehensive solutions that cater to the full project life cycle. The partnership between ConnellGriffin and IN4 Advisory strengthens and expands the ability to provide tailored and innovative solutions to their valued clients.

4. Acclime Australia expands with acquisition of The CFO Solution

Acclime Australia has expanded its position in the corporate services sector with the strategic acquisition of leading Melbourne advisory firm, The CFO Solution. Established in Melbourne in 2000, The CFO Solution provides virtual CFO-level financial strategy and reporting advice, capital-raising assistance, company secretarial services, accounts payable, and consulting services. The company has specialised in assisting clients listed on the ASX and NASDAQ bourses, as well as private companies, especially in the technology and mining sectors.

5. Mirae Asset acquires Australian company in global AI push

Mirae Asset Global Investments has acquired robo-advisor Stockspot, securing 53 percent of the Sydney-based firm worth 28 million Australian dollars ($18 million), the financial firm announced Wednesday. The deal makes Mirae Asset the first Korean financial company to acquire an overseas robo-advisor. Mirae Asset plans to buy the remaining stake of the company under a predetermined option contract. A robo-advisor is a digital service that provides clients with AI-driven financial planning and investment strategies based on algorithms and big data analysis. Stockspot, founded in 2013, is a leading robo-advisor in Australia, managing assets worth 650 million Australian dollars as of June. Mirae Asset Global Investments, having long sought to acquire a robo-advisor, is looking to penetrate the AI-based financial service market following the Stockspot purchase. Leading global asset managers BlackRock took over FutureAdvisor in 2015 and Goldman Sachs bought Honest Dollar in 2016.

6. Intellectual property heavyweight IPH acquires another Canadian firm as profit soars 23pc

Leading intellectual property (IP) services group IPH (ASX: IPH) has reached a deal to acquire Canada-based firm Ridout & Maybee for CAD$65 million ($74 million), building on the momentum of another Canadian company acquired in October that contributed to a 23 per cent lift in profit. Ridout & Maybee will form part of Smart & Biggar, which IPH bought for CAD$282 million ($320.4 million) and contributed $31.4 million in underlying EBITDA for the nine months of FY23 that it was part of the IPH group. This means the Canadian subsidiary now accounts for almost one fifth of total underlying earnings at the company, with success to date that also allowed it to achieve the maximum cap of earn-out entitlements of CAD$66 million ($76 million) in new IPH shares for the vendors. Toronto-headquartered Ridout & Maybee was founded in 1893 and today has 30 intellectual property staff across three offices, with the company filing more than 2,800 patents and 1,000 trademarks for its clients last year. The transaction will be funded from IPH’s existing debt facilities, and IPH expects it will lift the group’s underlying earnings in Canada by a quarter including cost efficiencies of approximately CAD$2 million ($2.3 million).

7. RSM buys NSW Riverina-based firm Granleese McEwen

Professional services firm RSM will capitalise on a growing agribusiness services market through the purchase of NSW regional provider Granleese McEwen, which is based in the Riverina ‘food bowl’. Mid-tier accounting and consulting firm RSM has continued its regional Australia expansion with the acquisition of New South Wales family-owned and operated accountancy Granleese McEwen, which will see RSM establish a fresh presence in Temora, Junee and West Wyalong in the state’s Riverina region north of Wagga. The move follows an earlier pick-up of Arc Accounting in Esperance in Western Australia.

8. Agile Analytics snaps up Excelerator BI

Data management firm Agile Analytics has acquired Microsoft Power BI training specialist Excelerator BI. The move will see Excelerator BI founder Matt Allington join Agile Analytics in a senior leadership role within the new structure. Senior consultant and Microsoft Certified Power BI trainer Jason Cockington will also transition across to help lead a new training practice within the broader Agile business. Allington is one of a select few globally with a Microsoft MVP designation and will bring over 30 years of experience to the company. He started Excelerator BI in 2014 and grew the business with corporate capabilities training in Power BI. Agile Analytics CEO Matthew Salmanzadeh said the acquisition and amalgamation of Excelerator BI services is a strategic response to market demand and will fill an increasing gap in internal capabilities for many of the company’s clients.

9. Superloop poised to acquire Symbio

Superloop is looking at another telco-related acquisition, with it poised to acquire Symbio. In a statement released to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), Superloop said it made a non-binding indicative proposal to acquire all of the telco software vendor’s shares at $2.85 per share. With 85,258,885 shares on offer, that comes to a total value of $243 million, rounded up. This total would be paid out in an equal split of cash and Superloop shares. If Superloop is successful, this would continue its 12-month telco-related acquisition streak with it announcing its deals for all of MyRepublic’s 52,000 NBN subscribers at $250 per migrated subscriber in January this year and VostroNet for up to a total of $50 million in September last year. In its ASX statement, Superloop’s board said it believed the transaction would create “a leading telecommunications company with a compelling breadth of services and strengthened customer proposition”.

10. OneStep Group acquires Perth-based ES2

Victoria-based ICT services business OneStep Group has acquired Microsoft gold partner and cyber security firm, ES2. The move underscores OneStep Group’s commitment to expanding its service offerings and delivering integrated and secured solutions to its customers. With cyber threats evolving at an unprecedented pace, the acquisition of Perth-based ES2 will establish synergy that marks a step forward in expanding OneStep Group’s enterprise capability and footprint. By integrating ES2’s cyber security expertise, OneStep Group will build upon its existing capability pillars, leveraging ES2’s specialisation in threat prevention, data protection and risk management. OneStep customers predominantly reside in the supply chain, large retail, trade sales and manufacturing sectors, which stand to benefit from a unified approach covering fixed networks, integrated mobile offerings, unified communications, managed IT services and cloud solutions.

11. BlueRock adds dnm group to practice in Melbourne

Multidisciplinary professional services firm BlueRock has expanded its presence in Melbourne with the addition of dnm group. The deal will see dnm group’s founder and director Dominic Morello and three staff join BlueRock’s 320-people division in Melbourne, where they will become part of the accounting service line. Since its inception in 2008, BlueRock has grown into a full-service professional services firm to small and mid-sized businesses and entrepreneurs in Victoria. The firm has over 400 staff.

12. Perth-based mining consultancy ATI Solutions joins Accenture

Accenture’s digital engineering and manufacturing practice has welcomed a team of 60 professionals in Perth following the acquisition of local mining and energy consultancy ATI Solutions. As part of the deal, around 60 employees and contractors will now join Accenture’s Industry X division in Western Australia, which provides digital engineering and manufacturing services. Terms of the transactions have not been disclosed. ATI was established in 2010 by co-founders Tim Ashenden and Matt Andrews, the latter who was previously a consulting director at Ajilon (later rebranded as Modis and recently merged to form Akkodis), with the pair each bringing more than two decades of resources industry and consulting experience. The company will continue to operate under its own name, as ‘ATI, part of Accenture’. In its own words, ATI provides “concept to commissioning” services, spanning strategy, process improvement, value delivery, technology selection, systems engineering and organisational transformation. Many of the world’s largest mining companies feature among ATI’s portfolio of clients, including BHP, Rio Tinto and Vale, with the firm also serving other industries such as shipping and rail.