EQT extends Australia IT rollup play
EQT-owned Nexon Asia Pacific, an Australia-based IT services provider, has acquired local counterpart Veridian Solutions for an undisclosed sum. This is its third bolt-on in as many months.
EQT acquired Nexon in 2019 via its Mid-Market Asia III fund, which closed at $800 million the prior year with a view to making deployments in a range of EUR40-100 million ($47-85 million). This was the fund’s only investment in Australia, according to AVCJ Research.
It follows the acquisitions of CSA, a digital transformation services provider with 300 clients across Australia, in July and Brisbane-based cybersecurity provider Equate Technologies the following month. No financial terms were disclosed.
Veridian specializes in customer engagement and communications services for middle-market enterprises. It claims to offer easy-to-use tools for managing contact center platforms, reporting, call recording, holding calls in virtual queues, and workforce management.
The company has offices in Sydney and Melbourne as well as a presence in the UK. Clients include superannuation firms MLC and UniSuper, accounting services player MYOB, and utility Ausgrid, budget airline Jetstar, and the Western Australian police department.
“Veridian’s rich experience servicing some of Australia’s largest contact center organizations, investment in innovation, dual-carrier partnerships, and 24/7 support model will expand Nexon’s unified communications and collaboration offering and capabilities,” Barry Assaf, CEO of Nexon, said in a statement.
“Also, their recent investment in a dedicated cybersecurity practice complements the rest of Nexon’s managed security services offering.”
EQT opened an Australia office in 2020, but it has been largely driven by the infrastructure team. In the meantime, local private equity executives Frank Heckes and David Forde, both formerly of Archer Capital, have been recruited as heads of Australia and New Zealand PE.
Recent activity in the local IT space includes a take-private offer worth up to A$3 billion for software developer Iress.
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