Belgian IT Companies Backed by Investor Capital A Are on a Merger and Acquisition Spree

The Ghent-based IT company Alistar is expanding once again through the acquisition of its Turnhout-based industry peer TCOG. Amista, based in Mechelen, is also on an acquisition spree. Both groups are part of the portfolio of the investor Capital A.

Alistar, whose origins date back to the 1999 founding of ESC—short for Eric Smet Consulting—has been on a major acquisition spree in recent years. The expansion received a boost following the investment firm Capital A—formerly ABN AMRO Participaties—took a stake in the company in 2022.

Back in the spring, news broke that ESC—now renamed Alistar—had acquired two Dutch industry peers. Now comes the announcement that the group is acquiring TCOG from Turnhout, a company in the portfolio of the major bank ING Belgium. TCOG is a Microsoft partner focused on the fashion and retail sectors, with over 100 employees and operations in Belgium, the Netherlands, and India.

Colruyt

TCOG helps retailers and wholesalers implement enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, automation, integrations, and optimization. The Turnhout-based company’s clients include well-known names such as ZEB (Colruyt’s fashion subsidiary), clothing brand Nouki’s, the Horta garden centers, and foodservice wholesaler Van Zon. With this deal, Alistar is better positioned to prepare the fashion and retail industries for the AI revolution.

Alistar helps organizations realize their digital ambitions with comprehensive solutions across numerous areas, most of which are also from Microsoft. The group is headquartered in Ghent and has offices in Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Portugal, Argentina, Indonesia, and India. With the addition of TCOG, the group now has over 930 employees and annual revenue of 160 million euros.

Intellus also has a new owner

There is a second deal of roughly the same size in the IT sector: Amista, based in Mechelen, is acquiring Intellus Group from Boortmeerbeek. Both companies also assist businesses with their digital transformation, including through solutions from SAP, Microsoft, and Amazon. It is noteworthy that Amista, just like Alistar, is part of Capital A’s portfolio.

Intellus has more than 130 consultants and offices in Boortmeerbeek, Ghent, and Luxembourg. Amista operates in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, with additional locations in Hungary, India, and the United States. Following the acquisition of Intellus, Amista now has over 450 consultants and 1,000 business clients, generating revenue of over 70 million euros.

Source: De Tijd, Bert Broens, July 17, 2026. This is an automatically generated translation of the original article, Link to the original article.