NCS buys majority stake in Sydney's Eighty20 Solutions

Eighty20 Solutions has received a major boost to its business after striking a deal with Singtel subsidiary NCS which will see the Singapore-based company acquire a majority stake in the enterprise IT specialist.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed but the two said in a joint statement that Eighty20 founders John Kelly and Justin Rees will retain a "significant minority stake" and will retain their roles within the business. They added that the completion of the transaction was subject to fulfilment of closing conditions.

The Sydney-based 2020 CRN Fast50 No. 4 will bring additional capabilities to NCS, particularly in modern workplace, cloud and security solutions.

“This strategic partnership between Eighty20 and NCS illustrates our continued drive to provide best of breed digital transformation solutions to our clients and the market”, Eighty20 co-founder John Kelly said.

“It allows us to leverage the scale, technical depth and geographic footprint of NCS, whilst continuing our mission to deliver tier one consulting services with a boutique feel.”

Justin Rees, Eighty20’s other co-founder and technical guru said, “NCS is at the forefront of digital innovation and combined with their heritage in large scale transformations, particularly government, makes them the perfect partner for our next phase of growth.”

This is the second such deal for NCS since the company officially landed on local shores almost a year ago. The company acquired Google Cloud specialist Riley in September 2021.

This was followed by the appointment of Nicole Key later that month to the position of director of sales and marketing. NCS said the Eighty20 investment would round out its Cloud capabilities, bringing deep Microsoft experience into the fold.

NCS’ Australian boss Andre Conti said in a statement that since launching operations last December, the company had expanded its presence in Australia with the launch of NCS NEXT Cloud Centre of Excellence and the acquisition of Riley.

“The addition of Eighty20’s unique capabilities in digital, cloud and workplace transformation across Microsoft cloud platforms will complement our existing technology practices, allowing us to meet the needs of our clients with a ‘best-of-cloud’ service portfolio,” he added.

A Microsoft Gold Partner, Eighty20 specialises in cloud transformation with a client portfolio spanning financial services, energy, government, healthcare, IT, manufacturing, and retail industries. Its clients include Woolworths, Suncorp, TPG, New South Wales Department of Education and Boral.

The deal combines Eighty20’s 120 person team with NCS and Riley staff and NCS said the investment would grow its headcount in Australia over the next few years.

Eighty20 recently added to its leadership team appointing Terry Antoniou as its new head of technology and solutions in October.

The IT provider will continue to run independently under NCS with all employees continuing in their current roles within the companies.

The completion of the transaction is subject to fulfilment of closing conditions.