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.

Aricent Acquires SmartPlay

Aricent Inc., a US based company providing Software and engineering services, has acquired Bangalore based Chip design services firm SmartPlay Technologies Pvt. Ltd. for around $180 Million. This is one of the biggest acquisitions in the semiconductor space in India. It is also Aricent fifth and the biggest ever acquisition in the country.

SmartPlay has around 1,200 employees in India, Germany, Singapore and the US. The acquisition will also expand Aricent 10,000 strong engineering team, which caters to nine core industries including telecommunications, networking, consumer electronics, industrial automation, semiconductor, automotive, internet services, consumer and enterprise software, media and entertainment.

The acquisition follows France based Technology consulting firm Altran acquisition of India based SiCon Design Technologies last month and the acquisition of Bengaluru based Cosmic Circuits in 2013 by Cadence Design Systems of the US, and demonstrates India’s growing and deep strengths in semiconductor design. SmartPlay was founded in 2008.

Aricent started in late 1990s as Hughes Software, a firm that was acquired by Flextronics International. In 2006, private equity major Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Co. acquired a majority stake in the venture and renamed it Aricent. Aricent previously acquired four other Indian firms – FutureSoft, Emuzed, Deccanet and Tenet Technologies.