€900M European consulting and technology leader Magellan expands into UK market following strategic acquisition of transport and mobility giant Mets
- Press Releases
Paris & London, June 1st, 2026 — Consulting and technology leader, Magellan, today announces the successful acquisition of Worldline’s Mobility and e-transactional Services (MeTS) division and Digital Banking activities. Bringing together complementary capabilities, Magellan confirms the creation of a unique international player, breaking down the silos between consulting and technology.
The Group is now equipped to intervene across the entire value chain: from strategic consulting to the implementation of market-leading technology platforms, as well as the custom-design and 24/7 operation of sovereign digital solutions.
With this strategic acquisition, the Group is doubling in size, targeting a turnover of €900 million in 2026 and significantly strengthening its international footprint with a presence in 13 countries and 6,700 employees. As a result, the Magellan Partners Group is adopting a unified brand, “Magellan” and establishing itself as a leading European player capable of guiding both public and private clients from strategy right through to execution.
Magellan becomes a strategic partner for the UK’s transport and mobility industry
Already established in the UK, where its teams advise leading brands on Luxury & Retail consulting topics and support clients on ESG advisory and the digitalisation of extra-financial processes, Magellan is now significantly strengthening its local footprint.
Now with MeTS, Magellan represents €100m (approx. £87m) in the UK as a leading B2B2C provider that designs, builds and operates secure digital platforms that support essential, everyday services used by millions of people across public services, transport and mobility, hospitality, finance, healthcare and retail.
MeTS is deeply trusted by the UK rail industry after over 40 years in the sector. As the Great British Railway shifts the industry toward a unified, customer-first model, this acquisition puts Magellan in the unique position to become the strategic partner to the industry, looking across the entire ecosystem and making travel more reliable for the end user.
In 2008, when we founded Magellan, merging Consulting and Technology was a gamble. Today, it is becoming the market standard. Magellan is taking a decisive step forward to support organisations through the complexity of current changes, whether they are strategic, operational, societal, environmental, or technological. We are extremely proud to welcome the MeTS teams to the group to complete our model and offer our public and private clients complete mastery of the value chain, incorporating tailored and sovereign solutions.
Didier Zeitoun
Co-founder and CEO of the Magellan Group
With this new entity, Magellan has established the means to become a leading player in Public Sector and hospitality in Europe, particularly in the UK and France. Our distinctiveness stems first and foremost from a deep understanding of the sectors, combined with our technological mastery and execution for rapid transformation, administrative simplification, improved user relations, digital sovereignty, and resilience against threats. Addressing major state challenges allows us to deliver the level of trust, continuity, and performance required.
Michel Hatiez
Co-founder and Managing Director of the Magellan Group
Caroline Jéséquel, Chief Executive Officer of MeTS and now Managing Director of the Magellan Group, says of the planning behind this acquisition:
The integration of MeTS's activities into the Group propels Magellan to the forefront of organisational transformation, giving rise to an independent, multi-specialist player that is unique in Europe, thanks to its broad coverage spanning from Consulting to Operations. In the era of AI and digital sovereignty, public and private organisations need an independent, trusted European player now more than ever, linking Business and Tech, Vision and Execution. In the context of rapid and historic transformation, Magellan is fully capable of supporting our clients to meet unprecedented challenges, from strategic and technological consulting to platform integration, as well as the 24/7 implementation and operation of digital and sensitive solutions in highly secure and sovereign environments. The creation of our new group is a fantastic opportunity to bring even greater value to our clients and our employees.
Caroline Jéséquel
Chief Executive Officer of MeTS and now Managing Director of the Magellan Group
The MeTS acquisition: a marker of the necessary evolution in the Consulting and Tech sector in the era of AI
The acquisition of MeTS accelerates a fundamental shift: businesses and organisations, whether they are large private firms, mid-caps, SMEs, or public institutions, are no longer just looking for a consulting firm or a technology integrator. They want a partner capable of articulating strategic vision, technological mastery, and concrete implementation to orchestrate their end-to-end digital, organisational, and sustainable transformation. In a market reshaped by AI, this continuity between Consulting, Tech, and execution becomes critical.
Magellan stands out precisely due to this integrated model. The Group brings together Consulting (business consulting, sector consulting, and IT system consulting), mastery of major market platforms (Microsoft, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Pega, SAP, AWS, Google), and the capacity to design, develop, and operate 24/7 custom and strategic digital solutions for its clients’ core businesses. This triptych, now enriched by AI at every level, represents a novel and differentiating position in the European market.
MeTS’s solutions are at the heart of the daily lives of millions of workers, students and consumers, particularly in the UK with the modernisation of the railway industry. The data-driven solutions enable smoother, more efficient and agile rail operations to make rail travel more reliable, convenient and attractive for passengers.
The new Group can design, build and operate tailored solutions for its clients, as well as leverage its portfolio of deployment-ready, off-the-shelf software solutions. Designed to simplify and secure critical operations, the solutions can be strategically deployed and operated at scale across omnichannel interactions (with CX Suite), mobility and transport (e-ticketing, mobility-as-a-service, open payment), trust services (digital workplace, digital passport), human resources, real estate and sustainability.
Magellan therefore complements its consulting and technological transformation model with software assets capable of enriching and accelerating the deployment of digital journeys, simplifying user experience, and securing large-scale implementation. This ability to combine expertise, platforms, software and execution constitutes an additional point of differentiation for the Group.
AI as an accelerator of the Magellan model
At the heart of Magellan’s model, AI (generative, agentic, or autonomous) is now integrated across all the Group’s activities, from consulting and design to practical integration. Magellan is dedicated to orchestrating multi-agent systems, driving autonomous decision loops, and governing production-stage AI tools for its clients.
By combining human expertise with cutting-edge technology and secure environments, Magellan turns AI into a direct driver of performance and operational transformation to accelerate decision-making, automate complex processes and deploy new services at scale.
Sovereignty, public cloud or both: the same large-scale execution capability tailored to varied strategic business needs
In a global context where security, resilience, and data control requirements are intensifying, Magellan possesses a rare capability: to intervene in sovereign environments when strategic or regulatory constraints demand it, as well as in public cloud environments when justified. From the public cloud to the most sensitive infrastructures, the Group covers the entire spectrum, with the same ability to execute at scale, tailored to the various strategic needs of businesses and public organizations.
This capability is notably reflected in recognised expertise within the most demanding sovereign environments. Magellan is one of the few French players holding the SecNumCloud certification (ANSSI) on its own sovereign cloud, distinguishing itself through its capacity to design, develop, and operate secure, custom solutions 24/7. Sovereignty thus constitutes a strong competitive advantage for Magellan, within a broader model of performance and execution.
An independent Group with an entrepreneurial DNA
The founders and 300 managers of the Magellan Group hold a large majority of the capital, guaranteeing true decision-making independence and a preserved entrepreneurial culture. This governance model combines the power of a large international group with the agility of a close-knit, independent player.
Magellan’s ambition has been supported by its financial partner ICG since 2025. The Crédit Agricole Group (via IDIA Capital Investissement, GSO Capital and PG Développement) and BNP Paribas (BNPP Agility), the two historical banks of the Group, and Capza (part of the BNP Paribas Asset Management Alts group), are taking equity stakes in the new entity as part of this transaction.
Advisors to Magellan:
- Edmond de Rothschild
- Lazard
- Alvarez & Marsal
- Oderis
- BCG
- SEGIF
- Mayer Brown
- 8 Advisory
- Archers
- Pragma Partners
- Tactics
- Latham & Watkins
- Ollyns