Crowe advises Compass Informatics on acquisition of Icon Group

Crowe was pleased to advise Compass Informatics within the Tracsis Group on their recent acquisition of Dublin-based Icon Group. 

Headquartered in Dublin and established in 1994, Icon Group is an interdisciplinary geoscience company specialising in Earth Observation (EO), geographical information system (GIS) and spatial data analytics. Icon Group has several long-term repeat contracts and employs around 60 full-time staff, all of whom will remain with the business post transaction.

Tracsis plc is a technology company and a leading provider of software and hardware products, data capture and data analytics/GIS services for the rail, traffic data and wider transport industries. 

Icon Group will be integrated with Compass Informatics to create an Irish-based data analytics centre of excellence specialising in providing location-related technologies and analytics solutions and services to government and commercial organisations. The acquisition of Icon Group adds EO capabilities that enhance the Group’s offering in this growing market and has a customer base that is complementary to that of Tracsis and Compass Informatics. The combined Irish business will have c.130 staff and will work across a variety of sectors deriving most of its revenue from regulated industries including transportation, asset management, environmental and utilities. 

Chris Barnes, CEO, Tracsis, commented, “We are delighted to have completed this transaction which extends the Group’s existing capabilities in Data Analytics and GIS into Earth Observation (EO) and strengthens our ability to deliver leading edge projects to clients in Ireland, the UK and across the European Union. This is an important milestone in our strategy of growing our ‘big data’ service offering across a range of regulated industries including transportation. We welcome the Icon Group team to Tracsis and look forward to future successes together.”

Crowe was delighted to have supported Compass Informatics and the Tracsis Group in respect of the taxation aspects of the transaction for both the company and the shareholders. 

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