NCS has announced its acquisition of Australia's largest privately-owned IT services company, The Dialog Group (Dialog), with the aim of better supporting the Australian public sector and enterprise clients in addressing their digital transformation needs.
The acquisition of Dialog for A$325 million is geared to unlock new growth opportunities in the Australian market and accelerate NCS' regionalisation strategy, the company states.
Reputed for its services portfolio from IT consulting, application development to managed application services, Dialog has presence across Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Perth, Darwin and Adelaide.
NCS CEO Ng Kuo Pin says, "This acquisition is a significant step in the regionalisation of NCS and leverages the combined strengths of NCS and Dialog and their established track records and reputations across both Singapore and Australia.
"The scale of this acquisition, our largest to date, reflects our firm commitment to growing our business beyond the shores of Singapore, particularly in Australia where we can also leverage the strategic presence of the Singtel Group."
The acquisition combines Dialog's core IT capabilities and NCS NEXT digital services to increase its focus on innovation, cloud, artificial intelligence and data analytics.
It also trebles the number of highly skilled IT specialists in its operations in Australia to 1,300 - ready to support clients from a multitude of sectors including government, healthcare, transport, communications, financial and commercial services.
The combination of talent and expertise will create a stronger end-to-end suite of technology and digital services for NCS' clients in Australia and across the region, the company states.
Ng added, "At NCS, our purpose is to advance our communities by harnessing technology and bringing people together to make the extraordinary happen. Similarly, Dialog's commitment to clients and technology has made it one of the leading tech companies in Australia, serving both government and enterprise clients.
"This alignment of purpose makes Dialog a perfect fit. Collectively, our capabilities, talent and reach will fortify and consolidate our position in Australia and help our clients and the industry meet the digital transformation demands of the future economy."
As part of its transformational growth plan, NCS has been scaling its presence in Australia since December 2020 to serve clients in Australia through NCS NEXT, its digital innovation and services arm - which supports enterprises' growing demand for digital transformation solutions.
Together, Dialog and NCS state they will capitalise on opportunities for synergistic growth between Australia and Singapore and leverage greater expertise to support the needs of clients across both markets.
This latest deal follows NCS NEXT's acquisition of two fast-growing technology companies last year: Riley, a cloud consultancy with dedicated expertise in Google cloud applications and Eighty20 Solutions, a cloud transformation specialist with unique capabilities across Microsoft cloud platforms.
Dialog's CEO Alan Key commented, "Together, we will have a strong breadth and depth of capabilities and expertise for our clients here in Australia. Both NCS and Dialog's talent development cultures and programmes will develop the best talent pipeline and create exciting jobs and growth opportunities."
With a high Net-Promoter Score (NPS) and a client base of governments and large enterprises, Dialog serves a diverse range of clients in government, healthcare, transportation, financial services, industrial, commercial, communications, media, and technology sectors.
Government and enterprise clients can now access deep-tech capabilities across 55 specialisations to support their transformation needs, including harnessing innovative digital and cloud technologies.
They will also be able to leverage synergies from NCS NEXT Innovation Centres, spanning Singapore and Melbourne, to drive innovation through cross-border collaboration and co-creation.
The completion of the acquisition is subject to fulfilment of closing conditions, including relevant approvals from regulatory authorities and other third parties, and is expected to be completed within three months.