Rank outsider Hitachi Consulting has snapped up Richmond-based (as in SW London rather than Virginia, US) operations management consultancy, Celerant Consulting. Terms were not disclosed, though it appears that the deal involved London-quoted investment trust, Caledonian Investments selling its 47.3% stake in Celerant to Hitachi Consulting for a maximum of £47.7m, valuing Celerant at £100m. Celerant management owned the balance of the shares. Caledonian invested $30m in Celerant in May 2006 as part of a $77m MBO from Novell. Celerant was sitting on Caledonian’s books at £16.9m as at 30th September 2012. Celerant was founded in 1987 and now has over 600 employees in Europe, Middle East and the Americas.
Frankly Hitachi Consulting has barely figured on our radar. The last time we heard anything about them was in April 2009 when they acquired UK-based Microsoft and Oracle consultancy, Edenbrook Consulting (see here). Since then, nada! Hitachi Consulting claims revenues in excess of $500m and over 4,400 employees. Its focus appears to be primarily in the US. Whether this new acquisition signals another brave attempt to make name for itself on this side of the pond is yet to be seen. If so, it would join a very short list indeed of Japanese IT consultancies aiming to break out of its parent company’s domestic market.