Yokogawa Electric Corp. (Tokyo, Japan; www.yokogawa.com) announced that it has reached an agreement with KBC Advanced Technologies plc, a consulting and software provider to the oil-and-gas and downstream industries, on the terms of Yokogawa’s firm intention to make an offer for KBC, to commence an all-cash acquisition by Yokogawa of the entire issued and to-be-issued share capital of KBC by means of a court-sanctioned scheme of arrangement, thereby making KBC a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yokogawa. The transaction has been approved at a meeting of Yokogawa’s Board of Directors, and KBC’s Board of Directors has resolved to recommend the Acquisition to KBC’s shareholders. The acquisition is expected to close between April and June 2016. The total acquisition price is approximately JPY30.8 billion (around $270 million).
KBC is a U.K.-based provider of software and consultancy to the oil-and-gas industry, focused on operational excellence and profit improvement for both the upstream (oil production) and downstream (oil refining and refinery-integrated petrochemicals) segments. KBC employs more than 300 staff primarily based out of three main hubs in the U.K., U.S. and Singapore, plus a number of other smaller offices.