Distie Transition Systems acquired by WhiteGold buyer

Exclusive Group has followed up its 2014 acquisition of WhiteGold Solutions with the buyout of Transition Systems, which is headquartered in Singapore and has offices in Sydney and Melbourne.

French-headquartered Exclusive Group – parent of distributor Exclusive Networks – announced the buyout yesterday, marking a new foray into this part of the world after acquiring 70 percent of WhiteGold Solutions in August 2014 for an undisclosed amount. Figures for the Transition Systems deal were not disclosed.

The acquisition of Transition Systems is Exclusive's biggest-ever buyout and brings the European distributor to more than 1,200 employees and €1 billion (A$1.5 billion) annual revenues, 25 percent of which will now come from APAC.

Exclusive Group posted full-year revenues of €627 million for its 2014 financial year, and €370 million for the first half of 2016.

Transition Systems Asia adds a further 18 offices in eight countries including India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

The deal gives Exclusive Networks Australia & New Zealand – formerly WhiteGold – a new sister company. Transition Systems Australia will continue to trade under its current name, while the rest of the Asian operations will adopt the Exclusive Networks brand.

Dominic Whitehand, managing director of Exclusive Networks APAC, told CRN that locally, there was no duplication of vendors, and that the two disties now have the opportunity to collaborate in Australia through shared resources or capabilities.

"There is zero competitive crossover for us in ANZ and we will work on any synergies between Exclusive Networks ANZ and Transition Systems Australia as and when appropriate."

Exclusive Networks' supplies a broad range of vendors in Australia & New Zealand with a particular focus on security and networks. Its vendors include A10 Networks, Cisco Meraki, FireEye, Fortinet, Barracuda Networks and Watchguard.

Transition Systems Australia's flagship vendor is unified communications brand Polycom, along with networking vendors Mellanox and Perle, telehealth brand GlobalMed, unified comms providers Acano and Tely Labs.

Established in 1999, Transition Systems Asia boasts a huge portfolio of vendors, including Alcatel-Lucent, Aruba Networks, Brocade, Intel Security, Juniper Networks, Palo Alto Networks, ShoreTel, Sourcefire and Websense.

Olivier Breittmayer, global chief executive of Exclusive Group said: “Asia is crucial for the expansion of our global strategy and this acquisition gives us a great platform to grow throughout the region in the coming years.  

"Transition Systems is a large, influential regional player with similar business DNA to our own, as well as having important vendors, technologies and a very strong value-adding culture in common.  We have every confidence in the existing management of the business to continue applying its successful formula under its new Exclusive Networks brand in tune with our global VAST [value-added services and technologies] strategy."

Breittmayer said the acquisition "adds significant capabilities to our overall proposition. Now our partners around the world have greater in-country presence to support global projects across Asia, while conversely our Asian reseller partners have the full spectrum of Exclusive Group services to support their deals into more than 100 countries worldwide.”