Acquisition creates powerhouse
in European IT and telecoms management. Claire Hack
reports.
Go deeper with GlobalData
IT and telecoms funder Econocom has
finalised agreements with French banking giant Société Générale for
the acquisition of IT lessor ECS.
The completion of the transaction
could make Econocom the leading European independent IT and telecom
infrastructure management group, with nearly 4,000 employees and
revenue of €1.6bn.
Exclusive negotiations began in
July this year and the two parties have now signed the share
purchase agreement. Econocom has also signed the final financing
agreements with a banking pool headed up by BNP Paribas Fortis and
ING.
The board of directors of Econocom
Group, which has bases in France and Belgium, ratified the payment
of €30m to Société Générale, from a total acquisition price of
€210m, on 28 July. The closing of the deal is still subject to
approval by the European competition authorities, and is expected
to take place by the end of October.
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By GlobalDataChris Labrey, sales director at ECS
in the UK and Ireland, said: “The services the groups offer are
completely complementary.
“ECS was sold to Société Générale
by Jean-Louis Bouchard who then set up Econocom so it is like
merging two halves of one company.
“They share the same founder so
they should have a similar culture already.
“The services that are being
offered by Econocom are desktop and telecoms based, while we do
everything else, so the offering is now complete which is really
good news.
“The merging of the two groups
should create a powerful beast in the European market. It is an
exciting time in the history of the company.”
A number of decisions on the
configuration of the new group are still to be made and the final
structure is not expected to be in place until early in the new
year.
“The merger strategy of the new
group will commence shortly once the sale is ratified by the
competition authorities. It will be very interesting between now
and Christmas,” Labrey added.
In 2009, Econocom’s revenue hit
€759m and the company is quoted on the Eurolist market of Euronext
Brussels.
ECS has 66 offices around the world
and saw revenues of €840m in 2009. It has been a wholly owned
subsidiary of Société Générale since 1984.
Bouchard, who is chairman of
Econocom Group, as well as the founder of ECS, said: “I am
particularly proud of this transaction, which means a great deal to
me personally.
“Naturally, I would also like to
pay tribute to the teams that have worked on the project and
brought it to fruition.”
Between now and the end of the
year, the management of both groups will begin the process of
defining the corporate organisation and integrating the combined
entity.
The structure of the new
organisation will be announced on 10 January 2011. It is not yet
known whether jobs will be affected by the changes.
