HITACHI Rail has completed the acquisition of Omnicom, a supplier of digital rail infrastructure monitoring equipment, from Balfour Beatty. No value was provided for the transaction.
The deal was announced in January and Hitachi says the acquisition is a strategic move that will help to further grow HMAX, its digital asset management business. HMAX is already installed on 2000 trains around the world and Hitachi says Omnicom’s solutions will feed into the platform’s bespoke offering for these customers.
Omnicom’s solutions and proprietary technology include software and hardware for surveying, inspecting and monitoring rail infrastructure assets including overhead line and the track. The monitoring technology can be installed on trains and uses edge computing and machine learning to provide near real-time track anomaly detection. TIt can enable the collection of trillions of bytes of images per day, allowing customers to optimise their trackside maintenance planning and the asset lifecycle.
“This acquisition will enable us to benefit from the unique digital capabilities of the wider Hitachi Group, enabling us to continue to innovate and deliver AI-enabled systems that can optimise the management of railway infrastructure,” says Sanjay Razdan, managing director of Omnicom.
