U.S. buyout fund Bain Capital is in final talks to buy French IT services firm Inetum in a deal worth about $2.27 billion, Reuters news report said.
The deal will see Inetum – formerly known as Gfi Informatique – returning into private equity hands after being sold to Qatar’s group Mannai Corp in 2016.
Bain Capital, a leading private equity firm, bought Italy’s Engineering Group in 2020 to build scale in Europe’s fragmented IT services industry.
Based on the outskirts of Paris, Inetum provides services spanning IT consultancy, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, blockchain and infrastructure in more than 26 countries.
In 2019 it bought Spanish firm Informatica El Corte Ingles (IECISA) to create a European tech champion.
Inetum, led by Chief Executive Vincent Rouaix, had revenues of almost 2 billion euros in 2020 and was previously backed by investment firms Apax France, Altamir and Boussard & Gavaudan.
