CFI France is pleased to announce that they acted as exclusive financial advisor to iXblue on the sale of 100% of its shares to Groupe Gorge

iXblue is a high-tech company recognized worldwide for its advanced solutions in navigation, maritime autonomy, and photonics, both for the civil, space, and defense sectors. iXblue technologies thus enable its customers to meet their challenges in harsh environments, from the bottom of the ocean to the confines of space. The company is based in France and has enjoyed great success since its creation in 2000, particularly internationally. It now has nearly 750 employees and sales in more than 60 countries.

Founded in 1936, ECA Group has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Groupe Gorgé since 1992. The company is one of the world leaders in the field of autonomous robotics and integrated systems, present in the naval sector. The company provides its customers with the most efficient and technologically advanced solutions in the field of naval, land and air drones. ECA Group also offers innovative technological solutions for the Aeronautics and Space sectors.

The merger of ECA Group and iXblue is part of Groupe Gorgé’s strategy to constitute a leader of the French Defense Industrial and Technological Base which will immediately rank among the very first world players in the following fields:

Maritime autonomous systems, for the fight against underwater mines.
Very high-performance inertial navigation solutions.
Photonic, Quantum, and Spatial Solutions.

The commercial complementarities between these two players are obvious and very high, both in terms of products and geography as well as types of projects (very technical and differentiated products at iXblue, know-how in systems engineering, and management of major projects at ECA).

The commercial networks of the two companies are highly complementary (80 ECA customer countries, 60 iXblue customer countries). Their alliance will make it possible to offer a greater number of customers the entire portfolio of products and solutions of the new group and to increase export orders significantly.

iXblue generated approximately €138m in revenue and more than €27m in EBITDA in 2021. The acquisition of iXblue, for an enterprise value of €410m, would be carried out by a holding company (NEWCO) which would be contributed and/or sold 100% of ECA Group shares.

The combination of the two makes it possible to create a French leader with nearly €250 million in turnover.

For more information: https://www.groupe-gorge.com/

This transaction closed on September 29, 2022.

Deal team: Jean-Marque Teurquetil, Frédéric Damiron, Sébastien Lambert and Thibault Danaguezian