Atkins take Advantage for £19.4m

Atkins, Europe’s largest multidisciplinary consultancy, today announced the acquisition of Advantage Business Group, an independent defence and systems consultancy, for a cash consideration of £19.4m.

Atkins said in a statement that the combined business will be well placed to provide independent systems engineering and project management support to government and industry for defence systems projects.

Advantage has particular expertise in communication and information systems, as well as through-life capability management, all increasingly important features of the next generation of defence acquisition.

Advantage also brings Atkins capability in airport systems and homeland security, adding to its current expertise in these growth areas. Additionally, Advantage’s business solutions group has the rights to the Q-MAP business process capture software.

Advantage employs approximately 180 staff with offices in Farnham, Bristol, Gainsborough and Aberdeen. Atkins will fully integrate Advantage into its Design & Engineering Solutions business, bringing the total number of staff working on similar defence projects to around 700.