By Calvin Biesecker
ManTech International [MANT] yesterday said it has agreed to acquire the Security and Intelligence Solutions (S&IS) business of QinetiQ North America (QNA) for $60 million in cash, giving it access to new customers and adding a key new contract.
The S&IS business has similar core competencies to ManTech’s Mission, Cyber and Technology Solutions group, including cyber security, cyber engineering and security solutions and intelligence analysis, William Varner, head of the ManTech group, told Defense Daily. But the S&IS business gives ManTech an “expanded array of customers that we’re not supporting and allows us to bring our capabilities” to them, he added.
One capability that ManTech has that it will be able to offer S&IS’ customers is in “cyber defense,” Varner said. S&IS will become part of Varner’s group.
Much of S&IS’ work is classified and just about all of its 370 full and part-time employees have security clearances, Varner said. Many of the company’s customers are three-letter agencies in the intelligence community, although it recently won a prime contract position on one category of the Missile Defense Agency’s Engineering and Support Services five-year, indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract that has a $365 million ceiling. The company will be competing against Booz Allen Hamilton and Lockheed Martin [LMT] for task orders under that award category.
“The MiDAESS contract encompasses the full range of integrated security solutions including cyber, allowing ManTech and S&IS to offer end-to-end, integrated security services under this contract,” Bill Torpey, senior vice president of S&IS, said in a statement.
Britain’s QinetiQ said it is selling the Virginia-based unit, which it doesn’t consider to be a core business, to bolster its balance sheet. The deal is expected to generate $40 million after taxes.
ManTech said the pending acquisition is expected to close shortly and will be accretive to its earnings in 2011. S&IS had sales of $55.9 million for the year ended March 31, 2010, with operating profit of $4.7 million. BB&T Capital Markets served as QNA’s financial adviser on the deal.
S&IS was originally part of Analex Corp., which QinetiQ acquired in 2007.