Iquality found the perfect buyer for their company in Broad Horizon Group

John van Beek, Patrik van Gelder and Patrick Joosten lacked a unified view of the future of their company when they started the sales process of Iquality in the autumn of 2021. The three shareholders decided to keep all their options open and found in Broad Horizon the perfect buyer for their company, which specialises in design, development and business applications and website support.

Core values such as growth, cooperation and the sharing of knowledge are highly valued in Broad Horizon’s buy-and-build strategy. Its companies, located throughout Europe, cooperate in the areas of cloud and platform, data and AI, and business applications. “From the very start, the interest in the company was very serious, much was negotiable and soon it became clear that working together would lead to a great deal of opportunities for the future,” according to M&A manager Willem Mulder, who guided the process with consultants Jannick van der Horst, Anthony Gelici and legal specialist Simone Kriekaart.

Personal wishes and view of the future

Because all Broad Horizon’s entities operate independently, the roles of John van Beek (CEO), Patrik van Gelder (COO) and Patrick Joosten (CFO) will remain virtually the same, Willem Mulder explains. “At the start of the sale process, each shareholder had his own wishes and view of the future. But the three gentlemen are experienced enough to figure it out together and – as cliché as that may sound – they are all very happy with this transaction. All three have shares in the group and they will use the next few years to realise Iquality’s growth ambitions.”

And those are some large ambitions, the three say. “We will share knowledge and work together within Broad Horizon. I am convinced that this will make our customers’ digital journey even more interesting,” John van Beek says. Patrik van Gelder: “We greatly value the personal development of our employees; through the synergy with the companies operating under Broad Horizon, we can take even more steps in this direction.” Patrick Joosten also looks to the future with confidence. “We can offer our customers an ever broader range of digital solutions, allowing us to grow even faster.”

Long-term partner

Because of Broad Horizon’s strength and size, Iquality can use its HR and recruitment department. Due to increasing career opportunities and possibilities for personal development, Iquality becomes even more interesting for highly qualified employees in IT & Software, abroad as well as at home. Willem Mulder: “More IT specialists are needed now that digitisation is growing. Iquality’s customers choose a long-term partner that invests, innovates and maintains. Iquality’s multidisciplinary teams are able to offer that. The company can join forces with other companies from Broad Horizon’s community and benefit from one another on all fronts.”