Babcock acquires cyber security consultancy

Arrowpoint Advisory's Defence & Security team has advised the founders of Context Information Security, a leading international cyber security consultancy, on its sale to Babcock International Group plc for £28m plus deferred consideration of £4m.

Headquartered in London and with offices in Germany and Australia, ContextIS has an exceptionally strong reputation in the rapidly growing cyber security market as a member of the elite group of companies that can respond when organisations are threatened by sophisticated cyber-attack from the most sophisticated criminal or state-sponsored threat actors.

ContextIS is certified under the new UK Government's Cyber Incident Response scheme which provides the public sector, the UK's critical national infrastructure, and private sector companies that impact on the country's ˜economic well-being', with access to Government-accredited suppliers delivering the highest levels of experience, ability and integrity.

Babcock's clients operate complex engineering systems in highly regulated and secure environments that increasingly rely on internet connectivity to ensure safe operation and control.  The acquisition of Context augments the group's broad engineering science capabilities, and provides further support in the delivery of resilient solutions to its clients' issues. ContextIS will operate alongside Babcock's other consultancy businesses, Frazer-Nash Consultancy and LSC Group.

Peter Rogers, Chief Executive at Babcock, commented: “ContextIS is a leader in cyber security consulting services.  We have worked with ContextIS for some time and it is clear its specialist knowledge, intellect and experience will help us broaden our services in cyber infrastructure, where our customers have a paramount requirement for assurance and system availability.  The acquisition of ContextIS and its combination with our existing expertise in systems engineering creates a strong platform that will enhance the range of services we offer our clients and enable us to expand into new markets.”

Mark Raeburn, Chief Executive Officer at ContextIS said: “We have found the perfect partner in Babcock and without Arrowpoint Advisory's help we would not have completed the deal in what turned out to be a very compressed timescale and enjoyed a comparatively stress free process. My thanks go to Arrowpoint Advisory who did such a first class job of shepherding us through the process and understanding what it was we wanted to achieve.”

Graham Carberry, Director at Arrowpoint Advisory, added: “ContextIS has attracted a great deal of interest from potential suitors in recent years. We were tasked by the founders with selecting the partner with the best fit culturally, strategically - and financially. Babcock fits these criteria extremely well and has worked hard to expedite the deal.”

In the year ended 31 May 2013, Context generated revenue of c.£10m.

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