Altran to buy US group Aricent

Altran, a global leader in Engineering and R&D services has entered today through its subsidiary Altran US, into a definitive agreement to acquire Aricent, a global leader in design and engineering services, from a group of investors led by KKR, for a total enterprise value of USD 2.0 Billion in an all cash transaction.

Aricent is a global digital leader in integrated design and engineering services, primarily serving clients of the Communications and Technology, Semiconductor and Software industries. Headquartered in Santa Clara (California), Aricent brings design and engineering capabilities to help its clients get to market faster, transform legacy products to digital, and create new revenue opportunities.

Aricent also has solid experience in shaping large engineering outsourcing deals and key capabilities in key emerging technologies including Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Systems, and Internet of Things and software frameworks. Over the LTM June 2017, Aricent generated revenues of $687m with ca. 10,500 employees and operated through 24 engineering centers and design studios, serving ca.360 clients globally.

This acquisition is expected to generate €150 million of additional revenues translating into €25 million EBITDA run-rate synergies and €25 million of delivery and cost synergies. These synergies are expected to be delivered progressively within 3 years, with implementation costs representing close to 1 year of cost synergies, to be spread over 2018-2019. The deal is expected to be EPS accretive from year one, and double digit accretive when taking into account run-rate synergies.

Lotte Confectionary to buy Havmor Ice Cream

South Korea Lotte Confectionary Co. Ltd will be acquiring Ahmedabad based ice-cream maker Havmor Ice Cream Ltd. for Rs 1,020 Crore. Founded in 1944, Havmor today manufactures 150 kinds of products from two plants and sells from around 30,000 dealers. The company’s ice creams are sold in 14 states.

Havmor Ice Cream Ltd is the seventh largest ice cream and frozen desserts maker in India with a 3.5% market share. The value of the ice cream and frozen desserts segment in India grew 20% in 2016 to reach Rs10,200 crore in sales and is forecast to see a constant value compound annual growth rate of 11% over 2016-21, leading to sales of Rs17,000 crore, as per a December 2016 report by market researcher Euromonitor International.

Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd, which sells the Amul brand, is the leading firm in the ice cream and frozen desserts segment with a 17% market share. HUL is the second largest, with a 9.7% market share, according to the Euromonitor report. The acquisition marks Lotte’s entry into the India ice-cream market and will give the company a larger geographic presence.

Lotte entered India in 2004 and has since then established large scale Choco-pie factories in Chennai and Delhi. Last year, Lotte confectionery reached a market share of 90% in the Indian Choco-pie market. Havmor will continue to operate its signature chain of restaurants and eateries across Gujarat as well as its signature brand and concept café—Huber & Holly.

Web.com acquires Acquisio

Web.com, a leading global provider of Internet Services and online marketing solutions for small businesses has acquired the assets of Acquisio, a leading local business software provider for online advertising management.

Acquisio brings to the table a data science tools platform that increasingly focuses on artificial intelligence and automation.  The platform will be added to Web.com’s other products, which now include templated websites, SEO and domain names.  The transaction price was not announced, although Acquisio has been known to be shopping itself for some time.

The company has invested heavily in technology that helps agencies scale SMB accounts by automating campaigns on major ad platforms, including Google AdWords, Facebook Ads and Bing Ads, and reducing cost per click. Acquisio also brings a healthy number of small and independent agency accounts to the fold. The Montreal headquarters office itself is seen as an asset, as Montreal is emerging as a software hub that specializes in AI.

While Web.com is still known primarily as a provider of inexpensive, templated Web sites, the company has invested heavily in technology companies to expand its offerings and revenue in recent years. These include Yodle in mid-2016, which it acquired for $320 Million and Network Solutions Inc. in mid-2011, which it acquired for $405 Million. Yodle provided programmatic advertising, SEO and CRM solutions for larger SMBs and franchises, while Network Solutions largely provides domain services.

Ebix to acquire travel portal Via.com

Ebix Inc., a supplier of on-demand software and e-commerce services to the Insurance, financial, e-governance and healthcare industries and one of its Singapore subsidiaries agreed to acquire Via.com, an online travel and assisted e-commerce exchange.

The acquisition of Via expands Ebix’s distribution network to over 224,000 outlets in South-east Asia, besides offering significant cross-selling opportunities for Ebix’s EbixCash (earlier ItzCash) Financial Exchange portfolio of products. The transaction values Via at a total enterprise value of approximately $74.9 million.

The company entered the Indian market with the purchase of an 80% stake in ItzCash for Rs800 crore from Essel Group and other shareholders in May. Since the ItzCash acquisition, Ebix has spent an additional $60-65 million in acquiring remittance businesses in the country. The acquisition will boost Ebix’s presence in the travel space, while also allowing for geographic expansion given that Via.com has a significant presence in South-east Asia.

Ebix will consolidate this acquisition into EbixCash to derive synergies and cross-selling opportunities. The Via distribution network encompasses over 85,000 agents in India, 14,700 agents in Indonesia, 9,900 agents in the Philippines, 600 agents in Singapore and 350 agents in the United Arab Emirates and Oman.