Intertek Group, a British assurance, inspection, product testing, and certification company, has agreed to acquire Australia-based assurance services provider SAI Global Assurance from Baring Private Equity Asia for AUD855 million ($664.83 million) in cash.

SAI Global Assurance is part of the larger SAI Global Group, a provider of risk, governance, and compliance management solutions, which is also owned by Baring Private Equity Asia.

Intertek Group said that the acquisition of SAI Global Assurance will further bolster its assurance offering by giving additional scale, improved geographic coverage, and new capabilities. Particularly, Intertek Group is expected to benefit from a robust market position in Australia, the US, the UK, Canada, and China, and an expanded service capability in attractive end-markets.

SAI Global Assurance offers assurance services, which include management systems certification and second party audits across a broad range of end-markets to over 60,000 customers in nearly 130 countries.

Andre Lacroix – CEO of Intertek Group said: “As we emerge from the global COVID-19 pandemic, we expect our customers to increase their focus on Risk-Based Quality Assurance to provide the highest quality safety and sustainability products and services to their customers.

“The growth of the Assurance, Testing, Inspection & Certification (ATIC) industry is expected to accelerate and Assurance, a capital light and high margin service will be critical to addressing the increased corporate focus on Total Quality Assurance.

“Intertek Total Quality Assurance (TQA) provides a superior service to our clients through our end-to-end systemic ATIC solutions. With the acquisition of SAI Global Assurance, we continue to strengthen our TQA value proposition by scaling up our Assurance business in complementary geographies such as Australia and the UK.”

The company is anticipated to earn revenues of AUD240 million in the financial year ending 30 June 2021.

The deal, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is likely to be closed in Q3 2021.

  Andre Lacroix, Australia, Baring Private Equity Asia, Intertek Group, SAI Global Assurance, SAI Global Group