Parsons says it will focus on mergers and acquisitions

By Marjorie Censer / June 21, 2019 at 1:49 PM

Parsons is focusing its capital on finding potential acquisitions in cybersecurity, intelligence, space, defense and critical infrastructure, according to its chief executive.

In a call with analysts this week, Parsons' first such call since becoming a publicly traded company, Chuck Harrington said the company sees a "phenomenal amount of opportunities . . . in the marketplace."

As a result, Parsons is focusing on mergers and acquisitions over share repurchase, he added.

The company is seeking businesses "that [meet] our acquisition criteria of high-margin, high-growth companies with great [intellectual property] in our focused markets of cyber, intel, space, defense, and critical infrastructure in the smart cities area," Harrington said. "We're focused on companies that have a material amount of IP . . . in the area of software, in software development and hardware."

He said Parsons is comfortable with its size, however.

"We think we have the scale that we need, and we're far more focused on high-margin, high-growth specialty areas that really play upon our differentiated capabilities versus scale for scale's sake," Harrington added.

Parsons reported this week sales in its most recent quarter in its federal solutions segment reached $423 million, up 45% from the same three-month period a year earlier. The company attributed the growth to its acquisition of Polaris Alpha and OGSystems.

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