Atos Origin of Paris has agreed to buy KPMG International's
consulting units in the UK and the Netherlands for €657m
(£423m).
The purchase gives Atos Origin a strong presence in the UK and
Netherlands markets, bringing combined revenues of €600m (£386m)
and 2,800 employees, the company said.
With the acquisitions, Atos will have a total of 30,000 employees
in more than 30 countries and will offer high-end business
consulting, systems integration and managed outsourcing services,
Atos Origin said in a statement yesterday.
"We announced two years ago that we wanted to strengthen our
consulting business and our European base, particularly in the
U.K., and that's what we're doing now," Atos Origin spokeswoman
Marie-Tatiana Collombert said, adding that the deal should be
completed by July.
KPMG's decision to sell off the consulting units is partly based on
criticism of the audit and accounting industry and the relationship
between audit and consulting services, and partly on the need for
capital in order to grow, said Gavin Houlgate, a KPMG spokesman
based in London.
Auditing services have come under criticism largely because of
events in the US, where the Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC) acts as a watchdog over rules that prevent auditing companies
from engaging in other business with companies they audit.
These rules have come under increasing scrutiny since the collapse
of energy trading company Enron, and investigations into its
relationship with auditor Arthur Andersen.
In the US, KPMG International has already spun off IT consulting
services into a separate company, KPMG Consulting, based in the US,
which no longer is affiliated with its former parent.
The consulting unit of KPMG International's German arm is also for
sale, and discussions are under way with interested parties.
Atos Origin is not prepared to comment on any further acquisition
plans.
Atos Origin will pay €422m (£272m) in cash for the KPMG businesses,
and 3.7 million bonds, worth €235m (£149m), that will be redeemed
for Atos Origin shares a year after issue, the company said.
The company's biggest shareholder, Koninklijke Philips Electronics,
has approved the acquisition, Atos Origin said.