M&A blog March: Again the Big4 and NCS twice!

2. NCS makes fourth Aussie acquisition, snaps up Arq Group for $290M

Singapore-based NCS has made its fourth acquisition within the space of 15 months in Australia by snapping up Arq Group in a A$290 million deal designed to strengthen digital capabilities and services offerings. Headquartered in Melbourne — with offices also in Sydney and Brisbane — Arq goes to market as a cloud, digital, data and analytics solutions provider and will attempt to provide the Singtel-owned business scale in the local market. In serving half of the ASX top 20 companies across multiple sectors, key customers include ANZ Bank, AustralianSuper, Domino’s and Qantas, in addition to NAB, The Coffee Club, NSW Rural Fire Services, Queensland Government and Victoria State Government among others.

3. Deloitte closes mini acquisition in sustainability technology space

Big Four firm Deloitte has closed a mini acquisition in the sustainability technology space, integrating start-up OCT Emissions Solutions and its founding team into its Climate and Sustainability practice. Having gained years of experience in the engineering sector, Joe Corvetti, Marni Oaten and Suren Thurairajah (who all served Worley at some point in their career) last year joined forces to launch OCT Emissions Solutions.OCT Emissions Solutions specialises in decarbonisation technology, including solutions for hydrogen, carbon sequestration and offsets, and carbon dioxide cleanup.

4. KKR-owned ERM to buy climate advice firm Point Advisory

ERM will acquire Point Advisory, an Australian climate change and sustainability advice firm, as the KKR-majority owned environmental consultancy expands to meet soaring demand driven by Australia’s rapid energy transition. Seeking to expand into an ever more lucrative market, ERM – which itself was part acquired by KKR last year – said it would purchase Point Advisory to expand its Climate Change and Corporate Sustainability division which serves clients across the Asia Pacific region.

5. Mantel Group answers device solutions need with Itty Bitty Apps buy

Technology and design consultancy Mantel Group has added yet another brand to its growing services portfolio, acquiring Melbourne-based mobile app development specialist Itty Bitty Apps. Founded in 2009, Itty Bitty Apps bills itself as one of the most experienced mobile consulting and product development companies in Australia. Dedicated to native mobile apps, the company has worked with brands such as SEEK, Sensis, AGL and ANZ to bring mobile applications to market using agile development practices. It is thought that Itty Bitty Apps will be able to work in combination with DigIO, a full technology stack consultancy, and Pretzel lab, the group’s design consultancy.

6. Atturra expands A/NZ QAD partnership following Kettering acquisition

Atturra is expanding its partnership with enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply chain solutions provider QAD two months after its acquisition of Kettering Professional Services. Under an expanded agreement, QAD will transfer service and support functions in Australaisa and the Pacific to the Australia-based technology consulting and services business. Prior to the new agreement, formerly known as FTS Group, Attura held the responsibility for over 50 QAD customers in Australia through the acquisition of Kettering, which was completed earlier this month for over A$5 million. During the announcement of the acquisition back in January to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), Kettering’s expertise with QAD solutions was referred to as it “providing a full breadth and depth of services around QAD’s product range and ecosystem”.

7. ASG Group acquires WA-based Microsoft consultancy Velrada

Digital strategy and transformation consultancy ASG Group has acquired Perth-based Microsoft solutions and services partner Velrada, bringing to an end the latter’s planned ASX listing. “Velrada’s acquisition allows us to boost our capacity for seamless delivery of Microsoft’s technology, and we are proud to be aligned with a company whose extensive West Australian foothold, and growing global footprint already includes major European customers and the UK Government,” said ASG Group CEO Dean Langenbach. Described as “an incredible West Australian success story” by Langenbach, Veralda has only five or so shareholders and has never raised outside capital, but had nevertheless grown its annual revenue to more than $45 million.

8. Singtel’s NCS acquires The Dialog Group for $325M

Singtel’s technology services subsidiary NCS has ramped up its Australian presence through purchasing IT consulting company The Dialog Group for A$325 million. Established in 1979, Dialog is Australia’s largest privately-owned IT services company and has a presence across Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Perth, Darwin, and Adelaide. Dialog has a team of more than 1000 IT specialists serving a diverse range of clients across the government, healthcare, transportation, financial services and technology sectors. According to NCS, the acquisition accelerates its “regionalisation strategy” in APAC and increases synergies between Australia and Singapore. The combined companies will provide stronger end-to-end core IT and digital services for government and enterprise clients, increasing NCS’ in-market headcount to 1,300 staff.

9. Advanced grows its international footprint acquiring fastest growing Australian procurement technology company, Portt

British software and services provider Advanced today announced the acquisition of Portt, the fastest growing provider of SaaS procurement, contract and supplier management solutions in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) whose customers include NSW Health, Ministry of Education and Super Retail Group. Portt’s team, located in Sydney and Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam currently manages over 63,000 private and public sector suppliers across ANZ with a fast-growing user base of 9,000+. Portt had previously been working in partnership with Advanced in the UK public and private sectors.

10. Ryder Environmental Are Now Part of 4Sight Consulting

It is with great pleasure that we announce that 4Sight Consulting has acquired Ryder Environmental, a Dunedin based company established in 1995 that provides specialist advice and laboratory services in freshwater, marine and terrestrial ecology, and water quality for clients throughout New Zealand. A great deal of thought and planning naturally goes into these decisions, and Ryder’s Partners, Greg Ryder, Mark Sanders, Ruth Goldsmith, and Ben Ludgate, have created a business that prides itself on sticking to its values and creating an inclusive culture where its staff feel valued, and clients feel like they’re number one. An ethos that immediately resonated with us when it came to our own values, and we had a strong sense of shared common purpose.

11. KPMG bolsters mid-market technology practice with Rubicon Red

After twelve years in business, Brisbane-headquartered IT consultancy Rubicon Red has been acquired by KPMG, with over 100 specialists crossing to the Big Four firm. Professional services firm KPMG has picked up enterprise software specialist Rubicon Red for an undisclosed sum. More than 100 staff from across Australia and India will now join KPMG, including CEO and co-founder Matt Wright and general managers John Kirk (sales) and DJ Munuswamy (delivery) as partners. Rubicon Red specialises in intelligent automation, data engineering and software integration, and offers services spanning consulting, implementation and managed services. Among its more than 300 projects to date are engagements for the University of Adelaide, National Pharmacies, and the Geelong Football Club.

12. Veris – A$30m sale of Aqura Technologies

Veris Ltd has entered into a binding Share Sale Agreement with Telstra Purple, a wholly owned subsidiary of Telstra, to sell 100% of Veris’ wholly owned subsidiary, Aqura Technologies, for $30 million in cash. Aqura Technologies is a specialist in the delivery of high-performance technology solutions across industrial wireless, enterprise communications and next-generation IoT which are critical for organisations with the adoption of digital transformation. Aqura is known for innovation, whether it is their technology approaches such as Private 4G and 5G LTE networks and or their commercial approaches which now offer in-house developed technology solutions via flexible As-A-Service models. The sale of Aqura to Telstra Purple represents a unique opportunity for Aqura and its staff to continue to accelerate the growth of Aqura’s proprietary technology solutions via access to Telstra’s sales and distribution channels across a range of geographies and industries, coupled with unrivalled balance sheet strength to underpin growth funding requirements.

13. Australian Strategy Partners integrates into OC&C Strategy Consultants

Following a year-long partnership, Australian Strategy Partners has been admitted into the integrated network OC&C Strategy Consultants. Effective from 1st May 2022, Australian Strategy Partners will rebrand as OC&C Strategy Consultants, becoming the firm’s 14th office globally. Founded in 1987, OC&C Strategy Consultants is headquartered in London. Founded in 1987, OC&C Strategy Consultants is one of the few global strategy consultancies that over the years decided to stick to a pure-play strategy consulting model (larger rivals such as the MBB have notably branched out into organisational, restructuring, digital and other fields of work). OC&C specialises in three lines of business: corporate strategy, mergers & acquisitions (commercial due diligence) and growth. Australian Strategy Partners was founded at the start of 2021 by a group of former EY-Parthenon seniors (Jeremy Barker, Maurice Violani and Mark Blackwell) with a similar vision – to offer independent strategic advice.