Colt Group S.A. has announced what it calls a ‘global expansion’ of its information delivery platform through the acquisition of KVH Co, Ltd. KVH is an information delivery platform providing integrated IT and communication solutions to enterprise businesses. It offers services to media, manufacturing, carrier, and financial sectors.

The acquisition will provide Colt with a platform to enter the APAC ICT services market which is growing at 12 percent per annum.

The transaction is expected to deliver annual cost and capex savings of €8.5m by 2017. Total cash consideration of ¥18.595 billion (€130.3m), for 100 percent of KVH payable in cash on completion of the transaction.

Turning Japanese

KVH specializes in low latency networks and provides connectivity to all major Japanese exchanges. KVH’s fiber backbone features a ‘flat’ network hierarchy with few media converters and network devices. This makes it the lowest latency network in metropolitan Japan. This is therefore a good buy for Colt which now has a high-quality network covering Tokyo, the world’s number one city economy, but also Singapore, Hong Kong and Seoul; four of Colt’s target cities for expansion.

KVH also provides cloud-based Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) services, managed and co-location services, data center real estate services, Ethernet and IP network services, low latency connectivity and professional consulting.

Rakesh Bhasin, Colt CEO, said: “I am pleased to announce our plan to acquire KVH. It is a growing business, largely focused on network and data centres in Asia. They have strong capabilities, a significant customer base and great assets, all complementary to our own. This partnership will enable Colt to offer our customers seamless solutions on a global basis and give us a solid platform for growth in Asia.”