The acquisition requires prior consultation with the relevant works councils and would be subject to customary closing conditions. Financial terms of the transaction are not being disclosed.
Founded in 2002, Arismore is a consulting firm which specialises in providing security services, including identity and access management (IAM), as well as enterprise architecture and change management. The company employs more than 300 people.
Since Ardian became a minority shareholder in 2010, Arismore has significantly accelerated its growth, multiplying its turnover three-fold. This is a result of sustaining strong organic growth, as well as acquiring Kernel Network, an access management expert, in 2014. Ardian has also supported Eric Boulay's ambitious entrepreneurial projects by contributing to the development of Memority, his software business.
Eric Boulay, founder and CEO of Arismore, said: “Accenture’s intention to acquire Arismore is a recognition of our expertise in the IAM space and of the quality of our teams, who are looking forward to this opportunity. This is a new chapter in the history of Arismore following our partnership with Ardian, who met all of our expectations and fully contributed to the acceleration of our strong growth over the past few years.”
Laurent Foata, head of Ardian Growth, added: “I’m thankful to Eric Boulay for the trust he put in Ardian over the years. This has been a strong partnership. This transaction demonstrates our ability to provide support for European companies with high potential and how we can help accelerate growth to turn these companies into world leaders.”
Geoffroy de La Grandière, Senior Investment Manager at Ardian Growth, added: “Collaborating with Eric and his teams has been a real pleasure. Working closely with Eric, we identified and worked towards external growth targets together, supporting his ambitious vision to grow Arismore.”
ABOUT ARDIAN
Ardian, founded in 1996 and led by Dominique Senequier, is an independent private investment company with assets of US$60bn managed or advised in Europe, North America and Asia. The company, which is majority-owned by its employees, keeps entrepreneurship at its heart and delivers investment performance to its global investors while fuelling growth in economies across the world. Ardian’s investment process embodies three values: excellence, loyalty and entrepreneurship.
Ardian maintains a truly global network, with more than 430 employees working through twelve offices in Paris, London, Frankfurt, Milan, Madrid, Zurich, New York, San Francisco, Beijing, Singapore, Jersey, Luxembourg. The company offers its 560 investors a diversified choice of funds covering the full range of asset classes, including Ardian Funds of Funds (primary, early secondary and secondary), Ardian Private Debt, Ardian Buyout (including Ardian Mid Cap Buyout Europe & North America, Ardian Expansion, Ardian Growth and Ardian Co-Investment), Ardian Infrastructure, Ardian Real Estate and Ardian Mandates.
ABOUT ARISMORE
Arismore is an innovative services company (Consulting, Solutions, Training) that assists companies in digital transformation and security. Since 2002, Arismore has been a centre of excellence for digital transformation management (Enterprise Architecture; Piloting Programmes, Processes and Organisation; Cloud Computing) and digital trust (Security, Identity, Mobility, Data Analytics, User Experience).
In 2004, Arismore and The Open Group®, an international standards body, founded The Open Group France to share their experiences and accelerate the use of Enterprise Architecture and TOGAF® as a framework for the best practices in business transformation. With its training and certification centre, Arismore promotes the best practices for transformation management.
Participants
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Arismore
- Eric Boulay
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Ardian
- Geoffroy de La Grandière, Laurent Foata
- Legal (Sell Side): Didier&Lévy, Philippe Didier
- M&A (Sell Side): Inflexion Points Technology Partner, Hubert Catanese, Frederic Aries