Tag Archives: financial services

April 2018: Knowledge Economy M&A and Equity Market Update

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By Ramone Param, Director, Equiteq

  • Major deals profiled include Infosys’ acquisition of WONGDOODY, HPE’s acquisition of RedPixie and Wavestone’s acquisition of Xceed.
  • The Equiteq Knowledge Economy Share Price Index achieved robust rises over the period.

Infosys deepens its creative agency skills with WONGDOODY

Target: WONGDOODY is a US-based creative agency with studios in Seattle and Los Angeles providing strategy, research, brand and marketing positioning, creative design, advertising and production services across industries.

Buyer: Infosys is a global listed technology services player headquartered in India.

Deal Value: $75.0m

Deal Insight: This transaction exemplifies two important market trends. Firstly, it demonstrates the convergence of creative media with technology and consulting, as large technology players look to broaden their customer-focused advisory skills and take a larger share of the growing digital transformation consulting market. The deal also highlights the demand from the Indian outsourcers for US-based high-margin capabilities that enable them to build skills further up the consulting value chain.

The deal develops Infosys’ global connected network of Digital Studios to help clients respond to digital disruption of their industries. WONGDOODY builds on Infosys’ acquisition of UK-based product design and customer experience innovator Brilliant Basics, which was acquired last year for c.$9.7m.

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May 2017: Consulting M&A Update

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By Ramone Param, Associate Director, Equiteq.

FIS sells majority stake in Capco to private equity

Clayton, Dubilier & Rice announced their acquisition of a 60% majority stake in Capco from FIS, a leader in financial services technology. Capco is the public brand for FIS’ management consulting business and specializes in business, digital and technology consulting services for the financial services industry. FIS acquired Capco for $292m in 2010 and will receive net cash proceeds of $477m from the sale, while retaining a 40% stake in the business.

New Mountain acquires OneDigital Health and Benefits

OneDigital, one of the top buyers that we identified in the HR space, announced that it has been acquired in an all-cash deal by private equity investor New Mountain Capital. New Mountain is acquiring a majority ownership in the business from Fidelity National Financial Ventures for a reported $560m. The investment will be aimed at providing strategic guidance and industry expertise, while helping drive OneDigital’s continued growth.

OneDigital is the United States’ largest provider of employee benefits services and offers employers a combination of strategic advisory, analytics, compliance support, HR capital management tools and comprehensive insurance offerings. The business serves 35,000 companies and manages c.$4 billion in premiums.

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5 things every consulting firm must know to thrive in Asia-Pacific

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Equiteq’s CEO, David Jorgenson, and Jean-Louis Michelet met with Professor Kevyn Yong (Dean of ESSEC Asia-Pacific and specialist of entrepreneurship) at ESSEC Business School in Singapore to discuss the opportunities and challenges impacting M&A activities in the Asia-Pacific region.

This is the third part of their discussion: What advice would you give to consulting firm owners in one of the Asia-Pacific countries?

The consultancy landscape in Asia-Pacific has changed in the last few years. There has been a strong development in the use of consultants as the regional economies have grown and become less dependent on the primary sector, and have seen a surge in secondary and services sectors activities.

A 2016 report from the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific shows the increased activity in the services sector is partly down to its role in facilitating global value chains in the manufacturing sector. It also attributes this to the growth of digital-intensive services in sectors like financial services, telecommunications and digital media and marketing.

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Readying Crossbridge for a premium sale by focusing on growth

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This week’s blog looks at how Equiteq, with a three-year growth support programme, helped Crossbridge to grow in preparation for sale. Crossbridge was transformed into a fast growing business, which later sold for a value that exceeded shareholder expectations.

Crossbridge is a specialist management consultancy which works with clients in the financial services sector to improve their operating model, internal operations and culture. Three years prior to the sale of the business, Crossbridge employed Equiteq to run an Equity Growth Accelerator (EGA) workshop with the aim of building the business’s value.

To get started, Equiteq ran a two-day workshop with the leadership team to see how they fared against other sector peers. From the outcome of the workshops we were able to map out where the company needed to be positioned, agree timescales, and lay out the actions the leadership team needed to commit to in order to achieve these objectives.

Using our ‘8 Lever model’, Crossbridge were able to chart their progress on an annual basis. During this period, our approach contributed to 66% revenue growth in two years.

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