NEC finalizes takeover of KMD (with Warsaw office)

NEC Corporation announced (in December) the acquisition of KMD Holding ApS, the holding company of KMD A/S (KMD), the largest Danish IT company. NEC is acquiring KMD for approximately 8 billion Danish Kroner (DKK) from Advent International, one of the world’s largest and most experienced private equity investors. The acquisition was completely in March 2019. KMD operates a major IT SSC in Warsaw.

NEC plans to to accelerate its global safety business, which is a focus of the company’s “Mid-term Management Plan 2020.” The acquisition will also support the “NEC Safer Cities” program, which includes utilization of its advanced biometric and AI technologies for public safety, digital government, and smart transportation applications.

“Denmark and the United Kingdom are considered European role models for the implementation of unified digital government measures in order to improve administrative services and reduce costs,” said Takashi Niino, President and CEO, NEC Corporation. “Through this acquisition, NEC will acquire a business model that leverages platforms in the digital government domain as it aims to expand business from northern Europe to the whole of Europe and globally.”

KMD provides software and IT services in Denmark with SaaS offerings and other models that generate recurring profit, NEC says. It has broadened its portfolio in a number of key verticals with successfully strategically executed mergers and acquisitions, and has a strong customer base among central and local governments and a wide range of software supporting digitization in Denmark, which ranked at the top of the “UN E-Government Survey 2018.”

“This is an historic moment for KMD. Becoming a part of NEC will give KMD a new and very robust platform for the strategic development of our business. NEC develops cutting-edge technologies and has a global organization with strong capabilities,” said Eva Berneke, CEO, KMD.

NEC believes it will benefit from synergy with KMD’s experience and software portfolio for the public sector, which NEC wants to address with its “NEC the WISE” AI technology products and “Bio-IDiom” biometric technologies.