Ohio IT company acquires ABQ’s Kemtah Group
One of Albuquerque’s fastestgrowing information technology and engineering firms, The Kemtah Group, was acquired this month by the Cincinnatibased company Belcan LLC for an undisclosed price.
Belcan, a global information technology firm focused on the aerospace, power generation, industrial and government services markets, announced the acquisition last Thursday. Belcan itself was acquired in mid-2015 by AE Industrial Partners LLC, which invests in aerospace, power generation and industrial specialty companies. Since that acquisition, Belcan has, in turn, been acquiring firms to broaden its reach, said AEI managing partner and Belcan chairman David Rowe.
“Kemtah is the fourth acquisition Belcan has completed since AEI acquired the company 18 months ago,” Rowe said in a prepared statement. “Each addition has greatly enhanced Belcan’s product and service offerings, while also extending our reach and presence in the marketplace.”
Kemtah, founded in 1987 and headquartered in Albuquerque, manages IT services for government agencies and commercial clients. It has contracts with 11 U.S. Department of Energy laboratories, and with the General Services Administration.
It’s one of New Mexico’s fastest-growing IT firms. It grew its revenue 138 percent from 2010 to 2014, from $14.9 million to $35.4 million, earning it the No. 2 spot in 2015 on the Journal’s Flying 40 list of fast-growing technology companies with more than $10 million in revenue. As of mid-2015, Kemtah had employed about 300 people at an 85,000-square-foot facility in the Journal Center business district.
Last summer, the company spun out all its IT contracts with medical firms into a separate entity, Unity BPO, and announced the new firm would hire up to 300 people. Unity BPO is not part of the Belcan acquisition, said Steve Wade, CEO of both Unity and Kemtah.
As for Kemtah, that company will remain headquartered in Albuquerque. “It’s business as usual,” Wade told the Journal Monday. “All people working with Kemtah here will continue. I don’t see any major changes.”
Wade said the acquisition will benefit both Kemtah and Belcan.
“It’s an interesting acquisition,” he said. “Belcan is a big international engineering firm that doesn’t have much of an IT or federal government services capability. A lot of what we’ll do is provide a platform in those areas.”