11 January 2022

Kainos Group plc

("Kainos" or the "Company")

Kainos strengthens Workday offering with Blackline acquisition

Kainos Group plc (KNOS), a leading digital technology company and Workday (NASDAQ: WDAY) services partner, today announces it has entered into an agreement to acquire and completed the acquisition of Blackline Group Inc ("Blackline Group"), a private United States based company.

Established in 2009 and headquartered in Washington state, Blackline Group is a speciality services firm that focuses on procurement and is an experienced advisory partner for Workday Strategic Sourcing (formerly Scout RFP).  The business has been a Workday advisory partner since Workday acquired Scout RFP in 2019.

Blackline Group has assisted companies with overcoming critical procurement challenges for more than a decade. During this period, the business has helped some of the world's largest organisations transform more than $100 billion in total spend. The company has over 50 consultants across the U.S. and is looking to build on its current presence in Europe.

The acquisition of Blackline Group further strengthens Kainos' capabilities in the Workday ecosystem and will allow Kainos to offer best-in-class Workday Strategic Sourcing advisory services to its customers, complementing its already deep expertise across Workday Financial Management, Workday Human Capital Management and Workday Adaptive Planning. The acquisition will further enhance Kainos' Workday presence in North America and Europe by adding over 50 spend management and procurement consultants from Blackline Group who will support the expansion of Kainos' Workday capabilities, client base, and expertise.

The acquisition is Kainos' sixth in the Workday partner ecosystem and the third in the Americas, after the acquisition of IntuitiveTEK and UNE Consulting.

Kainos has acquired 100% of the share capital of the Blackline Group and the entirety of Blackline's business. The terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed.

Brendan Mooney, CEO, Kainos, commented:

"We are delighted to announce the acquisition of Blackline Group. The procurement expertise of our new colleagues, paired with our deep experience with Workday, will allow us to expand the support that we can provide our existing customers, not just in North America, but across our global operations.

We are always striving to achieve the best business outcomes for our customers and extending our capability to include procurement helps us to achieve this goal.  At the same time, we are also excited by the new opportunities that combining the experience and expertise of the Kainos and Blackline teams will create for our business."

Ends

About Kainos

At Kainos we use technology to solve real problems for our customers, overcome big challenges for businesses, and make people's lives easier.

We build strong relationships with our customers and go beyond to change the way they work today and the impact they have tomorrow.

Our two specialist business areas, Digital Services and the Workday Practice, work globally for clients across healthcare, commercial and the public sector to make the world a little bit better, day by day.

Kainos has 2,500 people across Europe, North America, and South America. Kainos is listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE: KNOS).

For further information, please visit www.kainos.com. 

For further information, please contact:

Kainos via FTI Consulting LLP
Brendan Mooney, Chief Executive Officer
Richard McCann, Chief Financial Officer

Investec Bank plc   +44 20 7597 5970
Patrick Robb / Ben Griffiths

Canaccord Genuity   +44 20 7523 4606
Simon Bridges / Andrew Potts

FTI Consulting LLP   +44 20 3727 1000
Matt Dixon / Dwight Burden / Kwaku Aning