Infor, the industry cloud company, today announced that it has entered into an agreement to sell its global EAM (Enterprise Asset Management) business to Hexagon AB (Nasdaq Stockholm: HEXA B), a global leader in digital reality solutions, for approximately $2.75 billion USD in a combination of cash and stock and form a strategic relationship with the company to better serve shared customers. The businesses will remain separate until the completion of the transaction, subject to regulatory approvals.
In addition, Infor and Koch Equity Development, both subsidiaries of Koch Industries, are building strategic relationships with Hexagon. As a result of the transaction, Koch also will have an ownership stake in Hexagon, and Hexagon’s main shareholder, MSAB, has the intention of suggesting Brett Watson, President of Koch Equity Development, to the Hexagon nomination committee for nomination to the Board of Directors as soon as feasible post-closing.
As the EAM market evolves from traditional asset management to Asset Performance Management (APM), customers require broader solutions to manage the entire lifecycle of their assets – from the design/build phase to the operation phase.
The divestiture and strategic relationship positions Infor to:
- combine its industry-leading EAM technology with Hexagon’s digital reality solutions – including sensor, software, and autonomous technologies – to produce a better outcome for customers, and
- further focus on its strategy of delivering industry-specific cloud ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) suites (CloudSuites) that provide customers with sustained operational advantage and maintain a long-term view of the market.
Further, several Koch companies already are valued customers of the Infor EAM solution and Hexagon’s enterprise project performance and industrial facility solutions. To unlock additional value for Koch companies across the entire lifecycle of its manufacturing assets – from initial design to day-to-day operations – Koch and Hexagon have signed a memorandum of understanding to further expand the use of Infor EAM and Hexagon’s solutions.
“This is a win-win for Infor and Hexagon, as well as our customers and employees,” said Infor CEO Kevin Samuelson. “It enables Infor to double-down on providing innovative, industry-specific solutions that help address our customers’ biggest business challenges. And it enables us to partner with a company that is in a unique position to drive further digital transformation for Infor EAM customers by integrating Infor EAM’s asset management capabilities with Hexagon’s digital reality solutions and platforms.”
EAM solutions provide the foundation for digital innovation in asset-intensive industries, where digital realities, or digital operational twins, provide a single source of truth and complete line-of-sight to ever-changing situations. Customers in manufacturing, power and energy, facilities, transportation and more utilize Infor EAM to monitor, track and extract the most value from their assets while mitigating risks associated with operational downtime and unnecessary, unplanned costs.
Ola Rollén, Hexagon President and CEO, said, “By integrating Infor EAM’s built-in, industry-specific asset management capabilities with our digital reality solutions and platforms,” he explained, “we can improve capital asset performance in ways beyond what EAM can achieve standalone – from enhancing predictive maintenance and reducing energy usage to supporting other sustainability initiatives. Infor EAM customers and partners can expect a smooth transition with significant synergies that will produce faster growth and greater opportunities, including expansion into new verticals, as well as underserved markets such as the Asia Pacific.”
Infor’s EAM business and its approximately 500 employees located around the globe will operate as part of Hexagon’s Industrial Enterprise Solutions segment but will serve all Hexagon businesses focused on asset-intensive ecosystems such as manufacturing, industrial facilities, mines, farms, autonomous mobility, buildings, infrastructure, cities & nations, and defense. Infor will be commencing consultation processes with employees and their representatives regarding the transaction where required by, and in compliance with, applicable law.
Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC and Rothschild, Inc. served as financial advisors, and Jones Day served as legal advisor to Infor and Koch.
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