Hedra acquired by Mouchel

Knowing the interests of many HotViews readers, I’m sure you will be interested to learn that Mouchel has acquired Hedra for c£50m. Hedra’s 200 consultants will more than double Mouchel's management consulting business to around 500. Mouchel now has 11,000 employees and revenues of C£450m; most of it from the public sector. Hedra made PBT of c£4m on revenues of £47.5m in 2007; an impressive 27% increase on 2006.

Readers will recall that Hedra acquired BPO specialist HBS from Terra Firma for £46.2m in Aug 07. (see my report at the time – Mouchel Parkman buys HBS for seemingly bargain price) .

My (ex) colleagues from Ovum remarked on the Hedra purchase “Typically known for its capabilities in engineering, facilities and property services, IT-led management consultancy was an area out of (Mouchel’s) domain expertise. However, with HBS and Hedra now under its belt, the company is now on the way to becoming one of the one-stop-shop service providers to the public sector, along the lines of Serco and Capita”.

In other words, for all ITO/BPO players in the UK public sector space ”Watch out, there’s a new serious competitor about”.