Canada’s IT firm CGI to acquire British peer Logica for £1.7 bn

Canadian IT services company CGI Group Inc today struck a deal to buy its Anglo-Dutch rival Logica Plc for £1.7 billion ($2.64 billion) in order to gain European and outsourcing clients.

The Montreal-based company will pay Logica shareholders 105 pence in cash for each share, a premium of almost 60 per cent to its closing price of 65.70 pence yesterday.

Logica's board and the holders of some 18.2 per cent of the company's stock have supported the offer, CGI said.
 
Founded in 1969, and listed on both the London Stock Exchange and Euronext (Amsterdam) Stock Exchanges, Logica is a business and technology service company, employing 41,000 people and annual revenues of £3.9 billion.

The Reading, UK-based company provides business consulting, systems integration and outsourcing to clients around the world, including many of Europe's largest businesses.

Its clients include Daimler, Vodafone, TNT Express, Sony Ericsson, Nokia, Royal Dutch Shell, Volvo, Ford Motors, Phillips, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, Statoil, the European Commission among others.

In December 2011 Logica announced it would eliminate 1,300 jobs or around 3 per cent of the workforce spread across Benelux, UK and Sweden in order to bring in savings of £50 to £60 million pounds annualy from the second half of 2012.