French consultancy giant Capgemini has announced its intention to acquire Australian cloud services business Empired.
The deal will set Capgemini back around AU$233 million, based on a AU$1.35 consideration of 160,301,595 ordinary shares on issue, plus 12,575,751 converted performance rights.
Capgemini said the acquisition will strengthen its capabilities in cloud and data across Australia and New Zealand, specifically with Empired’s Microsoft focus.
“Empired is enabling organisations to transform and achieve more thanks to the depth and breadth of its capabilities across the entire Microsoft platform,” Capgemini said in a statement, adding this is “highly complementary” to its own partnership with Microsoft.
Capgemini said Empired would bring the largest accredited Microsoft Dynamics team in Australia and New Zealand, as well as a leg up in mining, utilities, and government sectors.
“Capgemini’s extensive transformation expertise combined with Empired’s strengths as a leader in Microsoft Azure and Dynamics 365 will open up the full power of digital transformation for our clients in Australia and New Zealand, to run their entire business in the cloud and realise value faster,” Capgemini APAC CEO Olaf Pietschner said.
The implementation of the scheme implementation agreement is subject to certain conditions including Empired shareholders’ approval, court approval, and the granting of a New Zealand Overseas Investment Act direction order.
“If implemented, the scheme will provide outstanding career opportunities for our people and have a positive impact for existing and prospective clients by providing them with access to the significant resources, service capabilities, and international experience of Capgemini,” Empired managing director Russell Baskerville added.
For 2021, Empired is expecting EBIDTA of around AU$22 million on revenue of around AU$186 million. Capgemini’s acquisition is expected to close in mid-November.
It is the fourth acquisition in the region by Capgemini in the past 18 months. Earlier this month, Capgemini scooped up Melbourne-based SAP services firm Acclimation for an undisclosed amount.
It also entered into a AU$95.5 million scheme implementation deed with RXP Services in November and Sydney’s Mulesoft-focused WhiteSky Labs was acquired by Capgemini in April last year.
