Atturra acquires Perth OpenText partner Hayes for $8.5 million

IT services company Atturra has acquired Perth-based Hayes Information Systems and Communications for $8.5 million.

Atturra said the acquisition would make it a market leader for OpenText Enterprise Content Management (ECM) in Australia, expand its data services portfolio and its geographic presence into Western Australia.

The acquisition was done through Atturra subsidiary Anatas, its workflow automation and data integration business that counts Boomi, Software AG, Red Hat Openshift and Smartsheet as its partners. Hayes would add OpenText, AWS, Answer Modules and SAP to its vendor partner list.

“This is an exciting move for Hayes, our team, our valued and supportive clients, and our partners. In considering this transaction it became clear to us that Atturra shares our culture and values and is respected widely for its authenticity, service excellence and customer focus,” Hayes chief executive Duncan Hayes said.

“We very much look forward to working as part of the enlarged Atturra team to deliver value and benefits to our customers and take pride in contributing to the growing capability of Atturra.”

The $8.5 million purchase price also has an option for an earn-out/post-completion consideration of up to $7.89 million upon achieving performance hurdles and metrics related to staff retention.

Atturra chief executive Stephen Kowal said, “This is an exciting acquisition for Atturra that positions us strongly in ECM, an important and growing segment of the IT services market. The synergies between our service offerings and the cultural alignment of both companies are very strong. Hayes’ core offerings and its industry solutions strengthen Atturra’s solution portfolio, and we see significant upside in the potential for introducing Hayes’ capabilities to our existing client base.

“This is another great step in Atturra’s strategy of picking leading technology and focusing on being a market leader, ensuring we can offer best-in-class solutions to our clients. It also strengthens our footprint in WA, an important Geographic region for us.

“We welcome Duncan Hayes, Amanda Cox and the wider Hayes team to Atturra and look forward to working closely with them to integrate the Hayes business into Atturra.”

Atturra said the deal is expected to be finalised on 1 June 2022 upon satisfaction of some conditions.

Hayes is Atturra’s second acquisition this year following Brisbane-based managed services provider and ERP specialist Kettering Professional Services in January, and also the second since going public on the ASX in December 2021.