Orange finalised a €515 million acquisition of security company SecureLink, a business the operator described as a key asset in its ambition to lead the European cybersecurity industry.

Since being announced in May, the purchase from Investcorp was cleared by all relevant authorties.

SecureLink provides industrial cybersecurity consulting services, and sells related hardware and software solutions. Orange stated its new asset has more than 2,000 corporate customers and 660 employees based in Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, UK, Germany, Denmark and Norway.

In a statement, Orange said a local presence was essential for customers buying cybersecurity services: “In the face of increasingly sophisticated and global threats, cybersecurity has become a critical issue for businesses and institutions.”

“It is a growing market that requires both a critical size to respond to the complexity of attacks and close proximity to customers,” it stated.

One of Orange’s corporate objectives is to lead the cybersecurity market in Europe. During Q1 it increased its scope in the sector with the acquisition of SecureData, one of the UK’s largest cybersecurity companies.