Our French services operation is 500 people, and through the deal we are adding a further 170 consultants, and are buying it from the KPMG audit partnerships, he said. Through the deal, Syntegra is also likely to be buying out minority interests owned by McLean, Virginia-based KPMG Consulting Inc, which acquired a stake in the business through its $685m June acquisition of KPMG Consulting AG (KCA) in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
Paris-based KPMG Consulting France will take on 85% of the 200 staff employed by the company at the end of 2000. The firm has specialist skills in SAP and Oracle consulting, with a client list of 170 firms across a variety of vertical markets including telecoms, transport, financial services, manufacturing and media, and includes companies such as Peugeot, La Poste, Hilton International, SNCF and EDF. Murphy said there is very little overlap between the two operations, with Syntegra’s main customers in the French market including Vivendi, Caisse d’Epargne, Renault, RCF and the Ministry of Finance.
Syntegra will pay an undisclosed sum to acquire KPMG Consulting France, and through the deal the company plans to add to its acquisition of French services firm Europe Informatique in 1996, which gave Syntegra a skills base of consultants, analysts and programmers. However, Murphy said the reason behind the latest acquisition is to expand the company’s presence into larger accounts. We were not in the major projects, and we needed the right balance of consulting and system integration skills, he said.
Source: Computerwire
