RWS Holdings PLC (LON:RWS) and SDL PLC (LON:SDL) announced they are to merge to create “the world's leading language services and technologies group”.
Shareholders in business and technical translations specialist RWS will retain a 70.5% shareholding in the new company.
SDL shareholders will receive 1.2246 new RWS shares for each share they hold.
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“The combined group will serve an expanded blue-chip customer base with limited overlap across its core markets, including 90 of the world's top 100 brands by value, all the top 10 pharmaceutical companies globally, many of the major West Coast technology businesses, and approximately half of the top 20 patent filers worldwide,” it said in a statement.
RWS said it expects the combination will provide at least £15mln of annual cost synergies along with further opportunities for margin improvements over time.
The deal will result in double-digit earnings per share accretion in its first full financial year post completion.
In London, SDL shares shot up 267p or 44% to trade at 865.2p while RWS was down 32p or 4.3% to 709p.