The head of a Newcastle company sold in a multimillion-pound deal at the end of last year said its acquisition has left it well placed to be a global player in the data services market.
NBS, which is based in Newcastle’s old post office, provides technology for the architectural and construction sectors.
The company began life as the commercial arm of architecture body RIBA but was sold in November to Swedish technology group Byggfakta Group, in a deal backed by private equity firms Stirling Square Capital Partners and TA Associates.
The deal marked an exit for LDC, the equity arm of Lloyds Bank, which had invested in NBS in 2018 in a deal which valued the company at more than £85m. It is thought that its value has increased significantly since then.
NBS’ acquisition came just a few days after the company itself grew by taking over Australian firm SCL Schumann. It had also made an acquisition in Canada in 2017 as it developed its position as a leading English-language provider of construction information.
Chief strategy officer Richard Waterhouse said that Newcastle would remain NBS’ base despite the change in ownership, and that the link-up with Byggfakta offered opportunities for growth.
Mr Waterhouse said that “without a doubt we’ll expect to see more growth in terms of acquisitions and headcount as a result” of last year’s takeover.
He added: “NBS still remains a Newcastle business. This is the 海角视频 base for Byggfakta and there will be synergies between the businesses.
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“We’re a business that’s all about construction data. Over the last year we’ve seen that data is crucial to how construction companies will improve and model buildings more effectively in the future.
“We’re the biggest provider of that data in the 海角视频 and having another private equity backer means there’s fantastic opportunities for NBS.
“We moved into the cloud as part of the LDC deal and the distributed working we’ve seen in the pandemic has pointed people to our cloud offering. We’ve shown we can continue to grow - spectacularly so - and we should see more of that coming forward.”
Mr Waterhouse said NBS had not been impacted by the Covid pandemic,with the firm being set up to switch to working-from-home easily.
The company benefited from its positioning in the provision of cloud-based technology, which is becoming more important to construction companies because of the pandemic.