Case Study

Miles was engaged by multinational engineering services firm, Bureau Veritas S.A. (based in Paris) to increase its presence in the Australian marketplace.

The firm employs over 26,000 people globally and turns over in excess of €2.0BN. Prior to Miles' acquisition mandate, Bureau Veritas had a turnover in Australia of $5M and less than 20 staff.

To date, through this engagement, Bureau Veritas has completed six acquisitions to increase its total staff to over 2,200 and turnover to $285M.

Miles' mandate had the following deliverables:

• Undertake detailed market research and divide into industry sectors
• Selection of specific sectors on which to focus acquisitions
• Increase presence and footprint in each chosen sector to greater than 500 staff (turnover circa $70M)

Miles followed a process developed in-house to fulfil this mandate. Research identified 35 potential targets, which Bureau Veritas approved for approach:

• 288 companies were identified in initial research
• 216 companies were eliminated by Miles (as they were a poor fit)
• 72 potential targets were presented to the client
• 35 companies were approved by the client for blind approach
• 24 progressed to negotiations:
  • 14 failed to proceed
  • 6 completed acquisitions (total of 2,200 staff, $285M+ revenue)
  • 4 deferred to allow focus to move to integration of completed acquisition (see below).

The six acquisitions completed include:

• Amdel Holdings
• CCI Holdings Ltd (ASX-listed)
• Kilpatrick & Associates
• Intico
• Alert
• IRC

These acquisitions establish Bureau Veritas as a market leader in three of their chosen sectors.