Australian mining and infrastructure solutions provider Orica has signed a $377m (A$556.76m) deal with Vance Street Capital to acquire 100% of Terra Insights, a technology supplier to the mining industry.
Pending regulatory approvals, the deal is expected to close in the first half of next year.
Orica will fund the transaction using cash reserves and committed undrawn bank debt facilities.
The company expects the deal to be accretive to its earnings per share (EPS) in its initial full year of ownership (fiscal year 2025).
Terra Insights, based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, supplies end-to-end sensors including InSAR technology and GPS/GNSS monitoring, connectivity solutions such as data loggers and gateways.
It also provides a software and data delivery technology platform for geotechnical, structural and geospatial monitoring of assets across mining and infrastructure industries in more than 90 countries.
This deal follows Orica’s acquisition of GroundProbe in 2018.
Terra Insights is expected to be a complementary addition that will help Orica expand its geographical exposure and diversify its revenue.
The deal is said to offer Orica a "compelling" opportunity for growth, as it can leverage the combined network capabilities of both GroundProbe and Terra Insights. The two companies have already been in a partnership for nearly ten years.
Orica managing director and CEO Sanjeev Gandhi said: “I am delighted to announce the acquisition of Terra today, a business that Orica has had a long-standing commercial relationship with for almost ten years.
“Terra is highly complementary to Orica Digital Solutions and our GroundProbe business, adding additional products and capability across the mining and civil infrastructure value chains. The acquisition allows Orica to offer a more complete geotechnical offering to customers as well as adding an established stream of recurring software revenue.”
Terra Insights CEO Mark Price said: “We are excited to partner with Orica for Terra Insight’s next chapter of growth. Given our strong working relationship with Orica for nearly a decade, this combination is a great next step in the evolution of our end-to-end sensor and data delivery platform through working closely with Orica’s Digital Solutions and GroundProbe businesses.
“This is a level of collaboration that is global-minded and future-focused. Importantly, this transaction meaningfully enhances the solutions we can collectively provide to our valued customers, and expand geographically across the mining and civil infrastructure markets.”
Last month, Orica entered a memorandum of understanding with Caterpillar to build integrated workflows for the mining industry.
Through the partnership, the companies will offer intelligence to customers for improved decision-making and mining operations optimisation.
