Cognizant to acquire Belcan, eyes $800M+ annual revenue by 2024

Cognizant, a NASDAQ listed company, has agreed to buy Belcan, LLC, a company that provides engineering research and development (ER&D) services, for about $1.3 billion in cash and stock.

Belcan operates primarily in sectors such as commercial aerospace, marine, space, defense, and industrial, with a focus on North America and the United Kingdom.

This deal will help Cognizant to grow its ER&D capabilities, especially in areas like the Internet of Things (IoT) and Digital Engineering.

It will also make Cognizant a major player in the aerospace and defense industry, thanks to Belcan's client base, expertise, and technology.

Belcan has about 6,500 engineers and technical consultants.

The revenue from Belcan that Cognizant expects to get in 2024 could be more than $800 million annually. In the last couple of years, Belcan has seen its revenue increase by around 8% annually.

"We believe that acquiring Belcan will strengthen Cognizant's position in the sizable and fast-growing ER&D services market," said Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar S. "Belcan's deep engineering capabilities and domain expertise across the aerospace & defense market will be complemented by Cognizant's scale and own multi-decade digital engineering expertise, providing Belcan's blue-chip client roster access to our advanced AI, Cloud and Data technologies."

"We see the opportunity to immediately accelerate revenue growth and create compelling shareholder value through our combined engineering capabilities. Belcan's clients would gain access to Cognizant's full suite of technology services, while Cognizant's clients across the manufacturing, automotive, energy, and high-tech sectors we believe will benefit from Belcan's engineering skills," Kumar further added.

Lance Kwasniewski, Belcan's CEO, is set to remain in his role and lead Belcan, which will continue operating under its current name as a division of Cognizant.