Michelin buys Masternaut

Michelin has agreed to buy the entire share capital of Masternaut, one of the largest European telematics providers, for an undisclosed amount. While not price details have been released, according to the company, the transaction has been made on the basis of eight-times 2018 EBITDA before synergies. Masternaut will continue to operate under its own brand as a fully-owned subsidiary within Michelin, and the transaction is expected to close within the next sixty days.

Masternaut is Michelin’s third major acquisition in the fleet telematics industry, with previous investments in Nextraq in North America and Sascar in South America. It also follows competitor Bridgestone’s billion-dollar acquisition of TomTom Telematics in January 2019, which closed in April.

Michelin believes the acquisition will “speed up the development of its Services & Solutions business for light vehicles and support the booming fleet market; enable Masternaut to roll out its offering across the whole of Europe by taking advantage of the Michelin network’s geographical coverage; increase the volume of data captured, allowing it to offer its customers the best solutions, improve product performance and develop its data science deployments, such as predictive maintenance.”

Michelin managing general partner Florent Menegaux, commented: “Michelin is consolidating its expertise in telematics, enabling us to optimize customer mobility and respond to the needs of a changing market. Masternaut represents a further step in the expansion of our Services & Solutions business, especially in Europe and for light vehicle fleets.”

This acquisition provides Michelin access to Europe’s rapidly-growing telematics market – projected by industry analyst Berg Insight to grow by over 15 per cent per annum in the next five years.

Masternaut: one of Europe’s largest fleet telematics companies

Founded in 1996, Masternaut is one of Europe’s largest fleet telematics service providers, with leading positions in the UK and France. Masternaut provides solutions for fleet tracking and optimisation, driver behaviour improvement and digital transformation. With Masternaut technology, customers improve driver safety, save on average £660 per vehicle annually, improve their service processes and reduce CO2 emissions (by over 230,000 tonnes in 2018).

Masternaut operates primarily in France and the United Kingdom. It provides a technical platform, which offers on-board telematics solutions to optimize vehicle fleet management and monitoring. Masternaut manages over 220,000 mostly light utility vehicles under contract.

Dhruv Parekh, CEO of Masternaut, said: “Over the last four years, I have been incredibly proud of what we have achieved. Masternaut Connect today is one of the fastest growing telematics platforms in Europe, with an industry-leading Net Promoter Score. Our investment in an enterprise-grade IoT platform has enabled us to launch new products in a scalable way. Together with the Michelin brand, we are well-positioned to expand in the connected vehicle industry across Europe. Operating within the Michelin Group accelerates our ability to achieve the vision of a connected world that is safer, cleaner and more productive.”