ICT Automatisering Acquires Brandfort
AMSTERDAM, 25/07/13 - ICT Automatisering is taking over engineering bureau Brandfort, which specialises in precision components and software development in the Benelux.
ICT is taking over all of Brandfort’s shares in exchange for new ICT shares. These will represent 27 percent of its outstanding share capital after completion of the transaction. The present ICT shareholders will retain 73 percent of the share capital of the new company. The takeover can be seen as a defensive step by ICT. The automaton company received an unsolicited merger proposal from temps organisation DPA last June. Talks between the two companies led to the conclusion at ICT that the merger proposal made by DPA lacked any ‘strategic rationale’. ICT again said in a press statement Wednesday that a merger with DPA would make an insufficient contribution to the strategy that ICT is pursuing and is therefore not in the interests of the stakeholders of ICT. ICT will therefore end the talks with DPA on the merger proposal. Brandfort has 250 employees and annual sales of 17.4 million euros, with a margin of around 7 percent. Clients include DAF, Philips, ASML, IHC and Delphi. Its activities are mainly focused on the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. The company expects to achieve sales of nearly 20 million euros in 2013, with a margin of about 9 percent. |