The competition authority has approved HiQ's acquisition of Ambientia

HiQ announced at the turn of the year that it had acquired the public sector business unit of the Hämeenlinna based Ambientia. The transaction has now been approved by the competition authorities. The business acquired from Ambientia will be incorporated as the separate HiQ Public Oy and will be merged into the HiQ brand.

With the acquisition, 93 experts will join HiQ, including specialists in cloud services and information security.

"HiQ warmly welcomes the public sector consultants moving from Ambientia to our company. The new HiQ employees bring with them critical skills and experience in public IT, but also deep technical expertise that nicely complements HiQ's existing capabilities," says Janne Ahonen, Managing Director of HiQ Oy.

Many ministries as well as government agencies are public sector clients of Ambientia. Among other things, the company has been responsible for the electronic system of the Transparency Register, which was launched this year.

After the transaction, HiQ will have about 280 employees in Finland and a turnover of about EUR 50 million. The acquisition will expand the company from Helsinki and Espoo to the regions of Hämeenlinna, Joensuu, Kuopio, Tampere, and Turku.

M&A transactions are an important part of HiQ

Last year was not an easy year for IT consulting. However, given the challenging market, HiQ's business developed well: Turnover increased and profit improved.

"2024 is off to a good start, even if the financial floodgates have not yet fully opened. The acquisition will give us additional support to scale the business and deliver larger units when needed," says Ahonen.

HiQ aims to grow faster than the market. Acquisitions will play a key role in achieving this goal.

Mergers and acquisition transactions in general are an integral part of HiQ. Prior to the Ambientia deal, HiQ acquired Lamia, a digital commerce specialist, in 2021. By the end of August, the integration of the company into HiQ will be completed. On the other hand, the corporate structure was also streamlined at the turn of the year with the separation of the businesses of HiQ and the integration platform Frends. Frends is now a separate company, Frends Technology Oy.

"I am proud of the development of HiQ in Finland. The strategic acquisitions support our growth strategy, which also includes cornerstones such as high professionalism, contributions to growth areas such as AI and cloud, and high motivation of our employees to serve our clients," Ahonen summarises.