(News Bulletin 247) – The electrical and mechanical engineering specialist announced on Friday the takeover of this company specializing in digital transformation and which should generate revenues of 140 million euros this year.

Spie takes over a relatively young company. The specialist in multi-technical services in the fields of energy and communications announced on Thursday after the market closed an agreement to acquire 75.1% of the capital of the German company BridgingIT Gmbh, founded in 2008. The balance of the capital will be held by the founders of this group and members of its management, knowing that the agreement provides for call and put option mechanisms on this remaining 24.9%.

This company offers digital transformation services that range from consulting to systems architecture, through the development of digital products/processes, software and outsourcing.

BridgingIT should achieve revenues of 140 million euros this year while its adjusted operating profit margin (Ebita) should be “single digit, at the top of the range” (thus between 5% and 9%), according to indications. provided by Spie.

The French group did not give the exact amount of this acquisition but indicated that it represented a little less than 9 times the Ebita expected this year, once the expected synergies have been deducted.

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A new “bolt-on” acquisition

“This acquisition will be financed with the Group’s existing resources and the impact on its financial debt ratio will remain very limited,” Spie said in a press release. The group asserts that this acquisition “will create significant value thanks to the expected strong organic growth combined with high margin levels for high value-added services”.

“With BridgingIT, we are expanding our range of services to include promising segments for the future. We are convinced that our strengths in IT solutions, communication and collaboration solutions complement the expertise of BridgingIT”, said in a press release, Michael Hartung, head of the information and communication services activity of Spie Germany and Central Europe. The transaction was expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2023.

With this operation Spie is continuing its policy of so-called “bolt-on” or “targeted” acquisitions. This type of policy consists of buying small and medium-sized targets to strengthen its positions and/or acquire adjacent activities. The market tends to appreciate these movements, because the acquired companies are not very large in size, the risks of integration of the target are lower. In 2022, Spie had made 5 bolt-on acquisitions, after having made 8 the previous year, spending a total of 88 million euros in 2022 and 157 million euros in 2021 respectively.

As part of this policy, Spie had already set its sights on a German group a few months ago. In June, the group announced the acquisition of ECS, a technical services provider in the field of information and communication technologies, a company which recorded revenues of 22 million euros in 2022.

Last year Spie had 13,700 employees in Germany, or 28% of the total, which is its second country behind France (39%).

In July, the company also announced that it had entered into exclusive negotiations to buy the French company AVM Up, which also generated revenues of 22 million euros last year.

On the Paris Bourse this Friday, the Spie share fell 1.35% around 10 a.m., after these announcements.