Under terms of the deal, Montreal, Canada-based Garda World will pay CAD 3.5m ($2.91m) to acquire Keyfacts, with CGI retaining its working capital worth approximately CAD 4m ($3.32m).
Keyfacts provides a range of search and retrieval services for investigative purposes, covering life and health insurance underwriting, employment information, real estate, and public records services. It also provides a secure portal called KeyNet to provide secure electronic information delivery. The company, which employs more than 180 staff and generates annual revenue of CAD 16m ($13.3m), counts some of Canada’s financial institutions including insurance companies among its customers.
Garda World employs some 8,000 people, and specializes in providing security and cash-handling processing services for Canadian companies. In its most recent third quarter ended October 31, 2004, Garda World reported a net profit of CAD 2.27m ($1.88m), compared to a profit of CAD 407.6m ($338,300) in 2003, on revenue that grew 100% to CAD 48.3m ($40.1m).
However, CGI has struggled to make the most of its business process services operation, which for the 12 months to the end of September 2004 increased revenue by only 1.6% to CAD 510.2m ($423.5m), representing 15.7% of the company’s overall revenue, whlie rivals such as EDS, IBM, Accenture, and ACS all claim to be experiencing healthy growth in their BPO practices.
