Parkeon and Swedish-based Cale, announce they have entered into exclusive negotiations to create the leading global technology company for enabling urban mobility. More than 5,000 cities in over 70 countries rely on Parkeon’s and Cale’s robust systems for payment solutions and services.
The two companies plan to join forces to access multi-disciplinary skills for the research, development and practical implementation of IoT solutions to offer cities and parking operators all around the world innovative, secure and integrated smart urban mobility services.
The combined group plans to increase investments in its ongoing digital transformation and leverage on its global customer base with over 100 million weekly end-users.
Both the Cale and Parkeon brands would continue to be offered to ensure customers a seamless and reliable service during and after the contemplated transaction.
For the year ended June 30, 2017, Parkeon turned in $256m revenues and Cale $81m revenues. The combined group targets double-digit revenue growth for the upcoming 12 months.
The combination would bolster the two companies’ extensive international operations and the enlarged group would have around 1,300 employees largely based in France, UK, Sweden and North America. Furthermore, it would represent a good fit for the two companies’ regional strengths where Parkeon has strong market positions in Europe outside Scandinavia and in the rest of the world – particularly in emerging markets, while Cale has a strong presence in Scandinavia and North America. New sales efforts would be targeted on Emerging markets in Asia, Middle East, Africa and South America.
Bertrand Barthélemy would remain group CEO and Stéphane Roques would head up the new Smart City business arising from the combination with Cale. Anton Kaya, currently CEO of Cale, would become Chief Operating Officer of the Smart City Business Unit and Owen Griffith would continue to oversee Smart Transport. The transaction would be implemented by way of contribution of Cale’s equity to Parkeon.
Bertrand Barthélemy, Parkeon’s CEO, said: “This project seeks to bring about smarter digital-based consumer mobility, stability for our customers, and growth for our business and employees. I am proud and look forward to putting our planned combination into practice..”
Anton Kaya, Cale’s CEO, added: “The combination of the top two companies in our industry would provide an amazing opportunity to bring together global scale, integrated technology, and diverse distribution to create a true market leader.”
The proposed transaction is subject to consultation of Parkeon’s works council, and would be completed by the beginning of 2018.