Digital consultancy ECS Group acquired by GlobalLogic

Leading digital transformation and DevOps consultancy ECS Group has been purchased by GlobalLogic, a Silicon Valley headquartered digital product engineering provider. Alantra advised ECS on the deal, in the firm’s 11th UK technology sector deal in 2020.

Digital transformation and cloud migration have been accelerated by Covid-19 and increased remote working, meaning services relating to those trends are experiencing strong growth in demand, as businesses look to consultancies to bridge the capability gap. While the UK’s merger and acquisition market has endured turbulence amid Brexit and the pandemic, strategic acquirers are increasingly looking to British firms as targets to this end – especially as the fluctuation of the pound offers cut-price deals for international investors.

ECS Group is a London headquartered consulting firm which employs 650 people worldwide, delivering digital solutions that harness the latest cloud technologies. Established in 2008, the firm has a focus on Digital Engineering, Data Analytics and Customer Experience. Its enterprise-grade DevOps techniques enable it to rapidly deploy and scale teams working on critical client transformation projects across the financial services, telecoms, pharma and energy sectors. The attractive proposition offered by ECS attracted interest from GlobalLogic this year, and the digital product engineering has clinched a deal for the firm as of November 2020.

GlobalLodgic helps its clients design and build innovative products, platforms, and digital experiences for the modern world. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, GlobalLogic operates design studios and engineering centres around the world, extending our deep expertise to customers in the communications, financial services, automotive, healthcare, technology, media and entertainment, manufacturing, and semiconductor industries.

“We’re always in search of differentiated companies that enhance our capabilities and expand our reach,” stated Shashank Samant, President and CEO, GlobalLogic. “ECS’s expertise in complex cloud services, its strong position and presence in the UK, and the company’s heritage in regulated industries such as financial services are all valuable additions to GlobalLogic. We are very excited to have the talented ECS team on board to deliver outstanding digital outcomes for our clients.”

The acquisition of ECS enables multinational PE backed GlobalLogic to advance its European and Financial Services footprint and adds a host of complementary cloud-centric offerings to its portfolio. Under the agreement, which closes for an undisclosed feed, ECS will continue to operate with its existing leadership and staff as a wholly owned subsidiary of GlobalLogic.

ECS was advised on the process by Alantra. A release from the consultancy said it had worked to identify a clear strategic rationale for a deal with GlobalLogic, and played a key role managing the transaction process. The Alantra deal team included James Chapman-Andrews, Renee Shaening and Michael Lenoce (Alantra’s west coast and east coast US cloud specialist managing directors), Emmet Keating and Dave Bellis.

“We’re delighted to have delivered what is a market leading price in a sector seeing significant M&A activity,” said Chapman-Andrews, UK Head of Technology at Alantra. “It’s clear that there is strong appetite amongst key international strategic acquirers such as GlobalLogic for businesses with ECS’s expertise in complex cloud services. We expect to see further consolidation as the major international players seek to secure the capabilities required to service this high growth global market.”

The sale of ECS is Alantra’s 11th UK technology sector deal in 2020, and follows digital and cloud deals including the sale of Ten10 to Graphite Capital, MML’s investment in Roboyo, the investment in Chaucer by Italian corporate BIP and the sale of Sol-Tec to Content + Cloud. The deal also comes shortly after Alantra advised on the sale of Giacom to Digital Wholesale Solutions. The deal is the consultancy’s sixth transaction in the cloud services space during 2020.