Australian IT services group ASP has further delivered on its promise to bulk up its in-house expertise in the technology of Germany’s biggest software giant, adding local SAP specialist Progress Pacific to its gleaming chest of acquisitions.
ASG revealed its interest in growing its SAP capability late last year and delivered with the April acquisition of Courtland Business Solutions. And in March the company picked up Melbourne-based IT consulting firm Dowling – although the company doesn’t focus on SAP.
The Progress buy – which will cost ASG up to $12 million, or five times average earnings before interest and tax – will bring the Perth-based company some 40 employees in Sydney and Melbourne, as well as a long list of customers including Broadcast Australia, Device Technologies, Fresenius Medical Care, George Weston Foods, IAG, ING, Kimberly-Clark, Pepsico and Smiths.
“Progress Pacific, together with the recently acquired Courtland Business Solutions in WA, sets the springboard for ASG to grow its SAP business throughout Australia,” said ASG’s general manager of sales and delivery Murray Rosa in a statement today.
Progress Pacific’s website says it was formed in July 1997, “as a natural evolution from overseas operations acting on behalf of SAP AG since 1994”. The company is headed by chief executive Robin Apfel, who today welcomed the deal.
One likely beneficiary of the deal is Progress director Carl Frauenstein, who the company’s website lists as its founder and a director since 2001 – when he stepped down from the managing director role.
Image credit: SAP