€120 Million Acquisition Complements Thales’ Growing Cyber Portfolio

Thales announced its acquisition of two of European leading cybersecurity companies, S21sec and Excellium, on 17 May. 22

Gathered under holding company Maxive Cybersecurity and majority owned by Sonae Investment Management, the companies aggregate over 500 employees and achieved sales of €59 million in 2021. The acquisition will complement Thales’ cybersecurity portfolio, strengthening its incident detection and response services, as well as consulting, audit and integration services. It will bring extensive industrial expertise and a solid, diversified customer base of industrial companies and critical infrastructure providers in the financial services, government and public services markets, which accounted for more than 50% of its revenue in 2021.

With 75% of staff at nine sites in Spain and Portugal, and 25% in Luxembourg and Belgium, it will also materially expand Thales’s European cybersecurity footprint, building on the companies’ strong history of innovation and leadership in cybersecurity.

The acquisition, for an enterprise value of €120 million, is an important step forward for Thales in the highly dynamic market for cybersecurity consulting and managed services, which anticipates significant growth between 2020 and 2025. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions and is expected to be completed during the second half of 2022.

“After the successful acquisitions of Vormetric in 2016 and Gemalto in 2019 that represented a step change in Thales’ data security and encryption expertise, the acquisition of S21sec and Excellium consolidates our leadership in cybersecurity consulting and managed services,” commented Marc Darmon, EVP Thales, Secure Communications & Information Systems.