A top Swiss cybersecurity firm has completed its acquisition of Bermuda’s QuoVadis Holdings.

WISeKey, a specialist in the “internet of things” as well as security, said the takeover will reinforce its position as a market leader.

Carlos Moreira, chairman and CEO of WISeKey, said: “We are excited to announce that this strategic acquisition of QuoVadis has now been completed.

“This acquisition will immediately give WISeKey access to a large clientele in the financial, industrial and media sectors and expand our geographic footprint in Europe.”

He added: “WISeKey started 2017 on a strong note and will continue to expand its business globally in the months to come, in particular in the US.”

Roman Brunner, CEO of QuoVadis, said the acquisition would help QuoVadis to expand its multinational corporate markets, as well as the “fast evolving” eIDAS market for cross-border services and the internet of things. eIDAS is an EU regulation on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions.

Mr Brunner added: “QuoVadis was founded in Bermuda and the island’s vibrant international community and well-grounded regulations for electronic transactions provided a springboard for QuoVadis’ international expansion.

“Our Bermuda-based public key infrastructure operations group and our separate QuoVadis Services secure hosting business will remain key ingredients of QuoVadis’ growth strategy.”

The deal means WISeKey will take an 85 per cent share of the equity in QuoVadis with existing shareholders in line for a cash payment plus equity in WISeKey, while current QuoVadis debt will be extinguished.

QuoVadis management shareholders will retain a 15 per cent minority stake, which WISeKey has an option to later acquire.

QuoVadis will continue to operate as a stand-alone company, expanding its business from centres in the UK, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Belgium, as well as in Bermuda.

Earlier this year, WISeKey predicted the deal would add more than $20 million in revenues to its top line.

QuoVadis provides collocation, managed data centre, infrastructure as a service and cloud hosting, as well as disaster recovery services.

Its services also include acting as an international certificate authority and digital signature solutions.

QuoVadis was founded in 2000 by Anthony Nagel and Stephen Davidson.

It now works with 3,000 customers worldwide, including more than 300 large capitalisation companies, with around $17 million in revenue predicted for this year alone and $20 million for 2017.

Mr Davidson is a director of Quo Vadis and vice-president of product development and also deputy chairman of Bermuda Press (Holdings), the parent company of The Royal Gazette,