By Camille Raynaud and Alan Charlish
(Reuters) - French technology consultancy company Altran Technologies (PA:ALTT) is to buy U.S. design and engineering services firm Aricent from a group of investors led by KKR (N:KKR) for a total enterprise value of 1.7 billion euros (£1.5 billion).
The acquisition of the California-based company is the largest of a series of deals done by Altran and will create a group with revenue of almost 3 billion euros, Altran said on Thursday.
"The combination contains no overlap ... and they’re bringing us com (communication), technology systems, semiconductors, software and design," Chief Executive Dominique Cerutti told reporters during a call.
Through this acquisition, the company will have access to a number of firms including Nokia (HE:NOKIA), Qualcomm (O:QCOM), AT&T (N:T) and Vodafone (L:VOD), Cerutti added.
As a result of the deal, Altran expects to hit two years early its 2020 target of 3 billion euros in revenue with an EBIT margin of around 13 percent and free cash flow of around 7 percent.
The company said the acquisition, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2018, would be accretive to earnings per share from the first year and will generate 150 million euros of additional revenues.
(The story corrects dollar value in headline and first paragraph.)