Acquisition

Jul 2024

Oaklen Consulting and Utsit announce strategic alliance to improve relations between banks and businesses

Customers and counterparties

● The two independent consultancies, Oaklen Consulting, which specializes in payments, and Utsit, which specializes in treasury information systems and B2B payments, have announced the combination of their businesses following the conclusion of a binding letter of offer.

● The eighty staff who make up the two firms will articulate their skills to optimize relationships between banks and businesses with a client portfolio comprising almost two hundred references.

● Thanks to their merger, Utsit and Oaklen Consulting, with combined sales of €15 million, will now offer a strategic approach to both B2B and B2C payments, from Swift to bankcards. Following a second MBO transaction in early 2024, Oaklen Consulting is strengthening its positioning combining strategic and operational expertise by joining forces with Utsit.
The strategic merger between Utsit and Oaklen Consulting will be announced at Universwiftnet 2024 on 4 June. The event has a special significance, as it was created by Hervé Postic, Chairman and CEO of Utsit, in February 2004, before being taken over by the financial media L’AGEFI.

Innovative expertise to meet new market challenges

This strategic merger will bring together the eighty employees of the two firms, who will combine their skills to optimize relations between banks and businesses across the entire payment value chain. The merger will be marked by a strong increase in the equity stake held by Oaklen Consulting and Utsit employees, and by the handover from Hervé Postic to his partners.

This long-term partnership will focus on three major challenges:

● deploying information systems for treasurers: offering robust, efficient solutions for managing financial flows, from the trading room back office to cash management, including payments and banking communications;

● the digitalization of payment-related support functions, particularly in connection with the reform of electronic invoicing, involving both management teams and accounting, legal, and IT departments;

● creating seamless payment experiences: developing innovative solutions to simplify transactions between companies and their partners.

By joining forces, the two independent firms will be strengthening their expertise, giving them undeniable competitive advantages over the major generalist consultancies.

Rémi Gitzinger, Managing Director of Oaklen Consulting, explains: “With Utsit, we are specialists in two different payment methods which, until now, only half-talked to each other: the world of cards and the world of transfers. In terms of usage, these two worlds will become transparent to the user tomorrow. It is therefore crucial for the market to know how to use these two systems and take advantage of their hybridization.”
For Hervé Postic, President and CEO of Utsit: “This merger is a decisive step for Utsit. Our meeting with Oaklen Consulting marks the start of a new era in the world of payments. Together, we will be able to offer even more effective solutions tailored to our customers' needs, by combining our expertise in treasury information systems with Oaklen's expertise in payments.”

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