Infrastructure group Balfour Beatty has announced that it has reached agreement for the sale of Omnicom, its specialist rail measurement hardware and intelligent software business, to Hitachi Rail.
Omnicom provides software and hardware for surveying, inspecting and monitoring rail infrastructure assets including its infrastructure monitoring system, gauge clearance measurement, line visual inspection and scanning infrastructure. Its monitoring systems can be installed on trains and uses edge computing and machine learning to provide near real-time anomaly detection on rail tracks.
The acquisition by Hitachi Rail will support Omnicom’s growth strategy to expand beyond the UK into the US and European markets.
In addition, Omnicom’s remote monitoring and measurement solutions will feed into Hitachi Rail’s new HMAX suite, which was launched at InnoTrans 2024. HMAX is a comprehensive digital asset management solution which integrates a vast array of live data from the train and the surrounding rail infrastructure into a single platform. This platform then uses AI and machine learning to process the data and extract knowledge and apply it to achieve operational and service enhancements including traffic optimization, energy consumption reduction, and an on-condition/ predictive maintenance process.
Mick Rayner, managing director of Balfour Beatty’s UK Rail business, said: “In order to capitalise on its unique technological solutions to the Rail market, Omnicom requires an owner with a truly global reach and a complementary culture.
“Hitachi’s acquisition will further enable Omnicom to leverage its capabilities and apply its expertise in the rail and digital technology sectors in both the US and European markets”.
Hitachi Rail CEO Giuseppe Marino said: “This is a strategic acquisition for Hitachi Rail. Plugging Omnicom’s pioneering track monitoring tools into our digital asset management platform, will further strengthen our global offer to optimize customers’ rail services and the surrounding infrastructure.
“New technological solutions such as our HMAX platform demonstrate the power of AI to enhance the performance of our railway infrastructure and systems.”
Commenting on the acquisition, Sanjay Razdan, managing director of Omnicom, said: “This acquisition strengthens Omnicom’s ability to collaborate, innovate and deliver AI-enabled systems and services whilst further enhancing the safety, efficiency, and reliability of rail infrastructure, building on our proven data driven solutions which help predict and prevent railway asset failures.
“I look forward to Omnicom’s continuing success as part of the Hitachi brand”.
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