A SingTel subsidiary, NCS, announced on Monday (Mar 28) that it is acquiring Australia’s ARQ Group (ARQ) for A$290 million (SGD 296 million).
This is the NCS Group’s fourth tech investment in the past 15 months and . It forms part of its thrust to transform the company into a “regional IT and digital powerhouse” in Singapore and Australia.
Earlier this month, NCS, which partners with businesses and governments to improve communities through technology, bought The Dialog Group (Dialog), Australia’s largest privately-owned IT services company, for A$325million (SGD 331 million). This followed NCS’ purchase of Australian cloud specialist Riley and a majority stake in Eighty20 Solutions, a cloud consultancy firm.
Buying ARQ has scaled up NCS NEXT in Australia, as it now allows end-to-end digital transformation value proposition for clients.
NCS CEO Ng Kuo Pin said: “This latest acquisition completes a jigsaw of strategic investments in Australia, ramping up our presence in a market that is critical to our regional expansion. Combined with Dialog’s core IT capabilities and extensive reach across 8 Australian cities, ARQ brings on board the right digital competencies that help create a highly compelling end-to-end digital transformation value proposition.”
Taken together, our four investments to date have given us the necessary scale, capabilities and credibility to compete as a regional digital powerhouse as we help governments and enterprises in Singapore and Australia achieve their digital transformation goals,” added Mr Ng.
Headquartered in Melbourne, ARQ also has offices in Sydney and Brisbane. It is recognised as one of Australia’s fastest-growing digital services companies, and has deep expertise in cloud, digital, data and analytics solutions.
By year’s end, its revenues are expected to reach A$118 million (SGD120 million), representing a year-on-year increase of 38 per cent, said a media release.
ARQ’s top clients include ANZ bank, AustralianSuper, Domino’s, Qantas, Transurban, nib, NAB, The Coffee Club, NSW Rural Fire Services, Queensland Government – Department of Education, and Victoria State Government – Department of Transport.
ARQ’s CEO Tristan Sternson said: “Joining the NCS family is a tremendous opportunity to continue growing the business as it now allows us to go international and serve regional clients besides capturing more domestic market share by leveraging synergies within NCS. We are well primed for expansion, having grown our government footprint to over a third of our business, acquired many new customers and hired 300 new talents on board. We intend to keep optimising NCS’ world-class IT and digital capabilities to keep building innovative solutions for our clients.”
NCS has been scaling up its presence in Australia since December 2020 via NCS NEXT, which digital transformation solutions to firms. The acquisition of NEXT raises NCS’ headcount to 1,900 in Australia.
The acquisition of ARQ is expected to be completed in May, following regulatory approval.
/TISG
SingTel CEO takes 43 percent pay cut in 2018, still earns S$3.5 million