Logica has acquired Spanish consultancy and professional services outfit, Grupo Gesfor, for €31.5m of which €24m will be paid cash on completion. This is in effect Logica’s entry into the Spanish market, which it had been servicing mainly out of Portugal. Privately held Gesfor turned over €64m last year which, with €7m net debt, sets EV/Sales to around 0.6x. There was no mention of profits other than to say that the acquisition will be accretive to earnings in 2012. Gesfor has some 1,200 employees, about half of which are based in LatAm countries. However, the majority of its revenues derive from Spain.
The Iberia region (basically, Portugal) accounted for £101m of Logica’s £3.7b revenues last year, dragged down 2% by the (hardly surprising) slowing of discretionary work. The Gesfor acquisition should therefore boost Logica’s Iberian revenues by some 50%. The aim is more to support Logica’s European clients operating in Spain than to mine the domestic market.
… and finds a new (telecoms-bred) CFO
The other news from Logica is the appointment of BT Global Services CFO, Himanshu Raja, to its top finance job, filling the vacancy left by Seamus Keating’s move to head up Logica Benelux at the end of last year. Raja, who comes on board in September, has previously worked for MCI, UUNET and MFS. Raja and Logica CEO Andy Green had coincided at BT though had never worked together. BT is one of Logica’s Top 5 clients in the Telecoms segment, which accounts for 8% of Logica’s worldwide revenues. Undoubtedly Raja will now be looking to dial all the right numbers for Logica.