Alstom has signed a purchase agreement for the acquisition of Nomad Holdings, commercially known as Nomad Digital from Amadeus Capital Partners, SEB Venture Capital and Deutsche Telekom Strategic Investments together with other investors. Nomad Digital employs around 230 people, and is headquartered in Newcastle, with 13 offices worldwide, principally in the UK, Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, Canada, Australia and the United States. Its turnover represents more than GBP 30 million.
Nomad Digital’s solutions include passenger WiFi, innovative Passenger Information Systems and on-board passenger portals, entertainment and media platforms. In addition, Nomad Digital also provides tele maintenance solutions, including Remote Online Condition Monitoring, Reliability Centred Maintenance, Driver Assist and Power Train products. Nomad Digital’s solutions and teams fully leverage the integration and convergence of both Rail and Information & Communications Technologies (ICT) and skills.
This ICT market for Rail is foreseeing a double-digit growth over the coming years, thanks to the high digital integration of trains being demanded by operators and passengers. The continuous evolution of technology and passenger demand offers the opportunity of a recurring business for upgrades, operation, and on-going maintenance services, as well as new services pulled by connectivity, a key domain of the on-going transport digitalisation. Nomad Digital has already established strong relationships with train operating companies, which today represent the most significant part of its business. Nomad Digital has quickly evolved from a pioneer to a leader in its segment, and serves today more than 80 major rail operating companies in more than 40 countries across the world.
“This acquisition illustrates our strategy to offer more and more tailor made solutions to our customers. We are very confident in the success of this new activity as Nomad Digital enables operators to significantly enhance the passenger experience. These new skills and technologies will enable us to accelerate the digitization of our offering” declares Pascal Cléré, senior vice-president for Digital Mobility at Alstom.
Alstom has already been working with Nomad Digital, for example for the installation of WiFi on its Coradia Continental trains in Germany and the New Pendolino trains for SBB in Switzerland. Alstom will allow Nomad Digital to benefit from its global footprint while keeping their current pace of growth and digital culture.
Closing of the transaction should happen in early January 2017. Alstom will begin integrating Nomad Holdings into its own group from then, whilst ensuring that the company operates as a wholly-owned subsidiary, retaining its well-known brand and independent identity.
