HONG KONG: International technology company Thales has entered into exclusive negotiations with French private equity firm Latour Capital with a view to divesting its ticketing and revenue collection, road tolling and car park management systems business, in line with the company’s strategy of business portfolio optimisation.
With close to 850 employees mainly based in France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, Mexico, Hong Kong, India, New Zealand and Egypt, this business generated sales of US$165 million (€155 million) in 2015.
Latour Capital is a French private equity firm with a strong entrepreneurial focus. It is mainly financed by major institutional investors. This acquisition would be an industrial development project designed to drive growth and employment.
Rail signalling, communication and supervision systems activities are at the core of the Group’s businesses and technologies and account for close to 90 per cent of the Group’s Ground Transportation Systems revenues and are not affected by this project.
According to Philippe Keryer, executive vice-president, Strategy, Research and Technologies, the project is part of Thales’ business portfolio management and contributes to focusing the Group on the areas in line with its growth strategy. “By entering into exclusive negotiations with Latour Capital, we have selected an entrepreneurial project that will create value by leveraging the expertise and advanced technologies developed by this business,” he said.
