Japanese company NEC recently announced that it will be acquiring unlisted Avaloq Group, the leading Swiss financial software company. NEC has shared that the purchase will enable the company access to Avaloq’s digital financial software and domain knowledge. This acquisition confirms NEC’s intent to enter the financial software field on a global scale, while strengthening its existing business in government.
The acquisition of 100% of Avaloq’s shares, 45% owned by Warburg Pincus, with the rest owned by company founder and employees, will reportedly be worth 2.05 billion Swiss francs. The deal is to be completed by April 2021 after the confirmation of compulsory procedures and approvals for each organization. This deal will aid NEC (formerly known as Nippon Electric Company) in accelerating business growth to improve profitability in the digital government and digital finance areas. NEC will do this through developing SaaS business models using the software and technology throughout the company’s innovations. NEC is already considered a leader in the integration of IT and network technologies that offer innovations to businesses and people globally.
Founded in 1985, Avaloq is recognized as a global leader in digital banking solutions. It offers powerful cloud solutions for banks and wealth managers around the world through business process-as-a-service (BPaaS) and software-as-a-service (SaaS). Today, it is at the forefront of financial IDX as a software developer. Avaloq has access to more than 150 customers in 30 countries globally, and currently holds the top market share in wealth management software within Europe and Asia Pacific. In recent years, Avaloq has worked with Fintech start-ups and other partners to aggressively promote digitization through AI, blockchain, and other technologies that seek to improve service in the banking sector.
NEC’s vision for smart cities sees that banks and financial institutions globally will embrace digitization and the rapid innovations that enable efficient financial services that resolve the increasing demand for digital banking. Avaloq’s wealth of innovative products, intel, and know-how make the company a great fit for NEC’s strategic aims. Avaloq will reportedly remain headquartered in Switzerland, running as its own entity.
Speaking on the future relationship between both companies, Juerg Hunziker, CEO of Avaloq said, “Due to very similar values of professionalism, reliability, quality and excellent service for clients, we firmly believe that this union will be a successful one for all involved and we are looking forward to an exciting and fruitful cooperation.”
