Flomerics Group to acquire NIKA GmbH

Flomerics Group plc on June 15 announced that it has reached agreement on the proposed acquisition of the entire share capital of NIKA GmbH, the engineering fluid dynamics software company based in Frankfurt, Germany, and specializing in simulation tools for the prediction of fluid flow and heat transfer.

NIKA’s world-leading computational fluid dynamics technology is derived from €8.5 million of product development investment, primarily in Russia where scientific expertise is excellent and costs are low. NIKA’s technology enhances Flomerics’ existing product range and gives access to a much wider potential customer base of design engineers outside Flomerics’ existing core market. There is a significant opportunity to expand NIKA’s sales immediately into countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom where Flomerics already has a strong presence.

NIKA’s “EFD” product is a suite of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software simulation programs used as part of the design process for a wide variety of products including vehicles, home appliances and electronic equipment. 

EFD stands for “engineering fluid dynamics”, which encapsulates NIKA’s unique approach to embedding CFD technology deeply into mainstream mechanical computer-aided design (MCAD) software, to a level unrivalled by other CFD software vendors.  NIKA uses application programming interfaces (APIs) from SolidWorks, Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire, & CATIA V5 to create a familiar user interface for users of each of these MCAD tools. Even more important is that the EFD solver interacts directly with the “native” MCAD data to create the analysis model, rather than the easier and more common approach of extracting data by file transfer and conversion. NIKA’s approach ensures that the thermal/fluid analysis is fully embedded in the central mechanical design flow, with no possibility of inconsistencies developing between CAD and “analysis” versions of the product.

NIKA and Flomerics already share many well-known customers such as Alcatel, BAE Systems, Black & Decker, Delphi, Intel, Mitsubishi, Thales, Samsung, Siemens, and Toyota. NIKA’s impressive customer list also includes companies such as DAF, Electrolux, Honda, Lufthansa, Miele, Olympus, Pirelli, Tyco and Volkswagen, to name just a few.

Flomerics’ chief executive, Gary Carter, said: “The proposed NIKA acquisition helps Flomerics to consolidate our leading position in our core markets such as electronic thermal analysis, and at the same time opens up a whole new market opportunity in putting complex CFD technology into the hands of mechanical designers. NIKA brings us new, cutting-edge technology, new products, new customers, and new strategic partnerships. Flomerics can immediately increase sales of EFD products in many territories through our global sales infrastructure.”

NIKA’s managing director, Roland Feldhinkel, added: “We are very excited to become a part of Flomerics Group. Flomerics has achieved clear market leadership in physical design of electronics, and we are confident that Flomerics global presence and sales and marketing strengths will help us make the most of NIKA’s world-leading technology.”