Imtech acquires the Swedish ICT company Qbranch, solid foundation for building a strong ICT position in the Nordic region
(Thomson Reuters ONE) -
Gouda - Imtech N.V. (technical services provider in Europe) is acquiring the
Swedish ICT company Qbranch. This acquisition is Imtech's first step on the
market of information and communication technology (ICT) in Sweden and is part
of the strategic growth plan 2015, to build a strong ICT position in the Nordic
region (Sweden, Norway and Finland). With 480 employees, Qbranch is expecting to
realise revenues of around 60 million euro in 2011. The acquisition will be paid
in cash and will directly contribute to the earnings per share.
René van der Bruggen, CEO Imtech: 'In our strategic growth plan 2015 we are
committed to strengthening considerably our European ICT activities. Imtech ICT
has strong market positions in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland,
Austria and the UK, as well as starting positions in France, Romania and South
East Asia. Imtech wishes to expand these positions to other Imtech home
countries, especially those in the Nordic region (Sweden, Norway and Finland).
Imtech already has a strong presence in this region as technical services
provider in the areas of electrical and mechanical services. Complementing this
with the third Imtech core competence - ICT (information and communication
technology) - is a logical next step. Therefore, the acquisition of Qbranch
matches our ambitions in multiple ways. Qbranch is one of the best-performing
ICT services providers in Sweden which, as supplier of Private Clouds
Technology, fits perfectly within the core of Imtech ICT's strategy. The
acquisition marks the start of an active acquisition policy on the road to a
strong ICT position in Nordic countries.'
Qbranch profile
Qbranch was established in 1993 and has since grown strongly each year. The
company is established in Stockholm and has branches in Gothenburg en Malmö. In
the past 10 years, Qbranch has changed its business model from a consultancy to
a contract model, with a strong, stable character. Qbranch focuses on medium
enterprises with around 100 to 3,000 employees and is the leading ICT player in
Sweden in this market segment. Qbranch has been Microsoft Gold partner and Cisco
partner for sustainable data centre technology for many years.
More than 60% of its activities take place in the ICT domain of Private Cloud
Technology. In this domain, shared and configurable networks, applications,
servers, data storage and additional IT services are offered to customers, so
that they do not have to invest in these themselves. This generates recurring
business, in which work is carried out on a continual basis for a growing group
of customers. In order to facilitate this, the company has four redundant data
centres with a total of 3,200 servers. In addition, 500 servers at customer
sites are managed remotely by Qbranch. From this strong basis, long-term
contracts are agreed for managed services in the area of IT outsourcing,
delivery of IT services, for example IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) or SaaS
(Software as a Service), and functional IT sourcing. Hereby, responsibility is
taken for parts of or the core of, customers' ICT processes.
Around 40% of the activities are based on ICT consultancy, for example, system
development and project management for specific Microsoft solutions, and
solutions based on ICT infrastructure.
Activities are developed in a broad spectrum of markets and sectors, including
the financial sector, trade, pharmacy, media, telecoms, government and industry.
This promotes continuity. Customers include among others ICA, Tele2, the
University of Gothenburg, dozens of municipalities and municipal cooperative
networks, Pernod Ricard, the leading Swedish newspapers Dagens Nyheter and the
Aftonbladet newspaper, and the national Swedish Museum. Qbranch has a young and
dynamic staff and has been distinguished many times for its personnel policy,
for example as Employer Branding Company of the Year 2010.
Continuity and synergy
The entire management of Qbranch will remain after the acquisition, which will
form the basis for continuity. Under the wings of Imtech's financial strength,
Qbranch will be able to grow autonomously more quickly. In the ICT market,
financial power and solvency are after all important assets. This also occurred
in earlier Imtech ICT acquisitions in Europe. In the coming years Qbranch will
continue its business under its own name and identity.
With Qbranch, Imtech sees good opportunities to strengthen its position in the
European ICT market via existing alliances with world market leaders such as
Microsoft, IBM or Cisco. Sufficient scale is a condition for this. The
acquisition of Qbranch opens interesting growth areas for Imtech in Sweden,
Norway and Finland. Following the acquisition, with approximately 2,150 ICT
specialists, Imtech ICT will realise total annual revenue in Europe of more than
560 million euro.
As provider of Private Clouds Technology, Qbranch finds itself in the centre of
Imtech ICT's strategy. Imtech also has strong positions in this fast-growing ICT
domain in Germany, Belgium, Austria, the UK and the Netherlands. Geographical
additions, knowledge-bundling and common product development make it possible to
use developed competencies over a broader market area. Exchange of ICT knowledge
between Imtech ICT and Qbranch will lead to extra growth at Qbranch, as well as
for the rest of the ICT portfolio. This applies especially to Private Cloud
Services such as IaaS and SaaS.
In the long-term, synergy can be expected between the activities of Imtech
Nordic (NVS, NEA and Sydtotal) and Qbranch in the area of integrated, multi-
disciplinary projects through combining Imtech's technical core competencies:
electrical services, ICT and mechanical services.
Ambition: strong ICT position in the Nordic region
Imtech distinguishes itself in Europe through combining services in the area of
electrical services, mechanical services and ICT. Imtech already has a top 3
position in Sweden, Norway and Finland in the areas of electrical and mechanical
services. The goal is to also reach a strong position in the field of ICT. The
acquisition of Qbranch is the first step in this direction. Further
acquisitions, partly through the Qbranch network, can be expected in the coming
period. By combining autonomous growth and acquisitions, Imtech ICT has proven,
in countries such as the Netherlands, Germany and Austria, that this approach is
successful.
Approval of competition authorities
The acquisition is subject to the approval of the Swedish competition
authorities.
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More information
Media: Analysts & investors:
Mark Salomons Jeroen Leenaers
Company Secretary Manager Investor Relations
T: +31 182 535 14 T: +31 182 54 35 04
E:mark.salomons(at)imtech.eu E:jeroen.leenaers(at)imtech.eu
www.imtech.eu www.imtech.eu
Imtech profile
Imtech N.V. is a European technical services provider in the fields of
electrical solutions, ICT (information and communication technology) and
mechanical solutions. With more than 27,000 employees, Imtech achieves annual
revenue of around 4.5 billion euro. Imtech holds strong positions in the
buildings and industry markets in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany,
Austria, Eastern Europe, Sweden, Norway, Finland, the UK, Ireland and Spain, the
European markets of ICT and Traffic as well as in the global marine market. In
total Imtech serves 21,000 customers. Imtech offers added value with integrated
and multidisciplinary total solutions that lead to better business processes and
more efficiency for customers and the customers they, in their turn, serve.
Imtech also offers solutions that contribute towards a sustainable society, for
example in the areas of energy, the environment, water and mobility. Imtech
shares are listed on the NYSE Euronext Amsterdam, where Imtech is included in
the Midkap Index. Imtech shares are also included in the Dow Jones STOXX 600
index.
pdf version of press release:
http://hugin.info/130755/R/1543260/472717.pdf
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Source: Imtech N.V. via Thomson Reuters ONE
[HUG#1543260]
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Datum: 01.09.2011 - 07:30 Uhr
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News-ID 61379
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