Skip to main content

Swarco acquires British traffic group

Austrian traffic technology group Swarco has acquired the APT group of companies, creating one of the largest traffic and parking management systems businesses in Europe.
May 8, 2014 Read time: 3 mins
Austrian Traffic Technology group 129 Swarco has acquired the APT group of companies, creating one of the largest traffic and parking management systems businesses in Europe.

In a deal signed by Swarco founder and owner Manfred Swarovski on 7 May 2014, Swarco purchased 100 per cent of the shares of the APT Group based in Harrow/Middlesex, comprising 7182 APT Security Systems, 1774 APT Skidata, 7763 APT Street Services, 1936 APT Technologies, 7637 Signpost Solutions and 7760 ParkingPal. The parties agreed not to disclose the purchase price.

Swarco is particularly strong in the adaptive control of urban and interurban traffic including public transport solutions and parking management systems – everything from LED-based signage and parking guidance solutions to efficient parking information and communications technologies. APT similarly has strength and depth in its range of solutions that are centred on the safe movement and management of vehicles and people for the future urban environment.

Swarco CEO Cees de Wijs acknowledges the natural fit between the two groups, their products, and their current and prospective target markets: “We have complementary rather than competing products and solutions, and strong synergies in terms of business ethics, culture and corporate dynamics,” he said.

Swarco Group CFO Daniel Sieberer, who managed the transaction, is convinced that the acquisition of APT Group will significantly upgrade Swarco‘s position on the UK Traffic Management market. “In particular we will strengthen our parking and electromobility business, which strategically is one of our most important investment focuses.“

Dermot Murphy, chief executive of the APT Group of Companies, describes the merger as a ‘win-win’ for customers: “Customers will benefit from having an even broader range of products, services and indeed people with whom to work,” he said.  “But more than this, the combined resources of both businesses can be focused on researching and developing new products, and bringing those products to market in a more timely fashion in line with customer demands. The two companies will be able to share product development, service, sales and marketing resource. There will be a significantly increased number of field-based resources on hand to support the two companies’ customers nationwide.”

Swarco and APT have previously worked successfully together on a number of projects and proven the concept and advantages of a combined offer to the market, such as the parking guidance management of major UK shopping centres. In Scandinavia Swarco is the exclusive partner for Skidata parking systems.

In the UK Swarco now has operations including its subsidiary Swarco Traffic and a manufacturing presence in Richmond, Yorkshire and sales and service centre in Milton Keynes, as well as the APT facilities in Harrow and Tipton.

Related Content

  • January 23, 2017
    APT Skidata wins two parking upgrade contracts
    Swarco and Skidata parking technology company APT Skidata has been awarded two significant contracts by UK company Land Securities to upgrade the parking systems at Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth and Lewisham shopping centre in London. Both sites will deploy APT Skidata’s new Power.Gate control columns to control entry and exit, providing operators with options to adopt alternative ticketing types in the future. The control columns at both sites will be fitted with optic scanners which will read e-ticke
  • February 22, 2017
    Swarco on display at Parkex 2017
    Swarco Parking & eMobility UK is exhibiting its range of business enabling solutions and software developed for the connected world from three of its business units at Parkex 2017. APT Skidata will demonstrate its SwappAccess mobile App that enables customers to plan, park and pay for on or off-street parking, along with SWEB.Validate, an electronic validation management hosted service. For system operators, it will showcase INS Reporting, the latest cloud-based reporting and management information syste
  • January 18, 2016
    New directors, new name for Imtech Traffic & Infra
    Two new directors joined the board of Imtech Traffic & Infra Group at the beginning of January; Cees de Wijs as the new CEO and Ron van Laar as the new CFO. Imtech Traffic & Infra, which is active on the European market and has branches in the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Finland, the UK and Ireland, was taken over by investment company Egeria in August 2015. The arrival of the new directors marks a change of course for the company, with more emphasis on innovation and technology and a
  • July 17, 2014
    Q-Free acquires Open Roads Consulting
    Q-Free has signed a Share Purchase Agreement (SPA) for the acquisition of Open Roads Consulting for a cash consideration of approximately US$6.2 million. Further consideration is dependent on future financial performance. The transaction is expected to be closed within the end of the third quarter 2014. The acquisition represents a milestone for Q-Free and is a strategically good match with other advanced traffic management systems (ATMS) and road user charging (RUC) activities within the group. It will