nGAGE Talent; one of the largest privately owned UK recruitment groups has acquired the South African operation of Xcede Group. The South Africa business unit has been re-branded to SMART4 Energy and will continue to operate in the energy & resources sector providing engineering, commercial and financial talent to the sector across the region as it has done for the past 14 years led by CEO Ryan Forbes. Additionally, the business will support other nGAGE Talent brands from a talent resourcing perspective.

Tim Cook nGAGE CEO commented. "We are delighted to back Ryan to achieve his ambition of owning and running his own business. This is what sets nGAGE apart, we can enable management to accelerate their ambitious growth plans whilst retaining their identity and culture and giving them all the benefits of being part of a larger group.

Strategically, while this is a sector we are familiar with and already have a successful track record in, it excitingly adds real horsepower to our international expansion and takes us into Africa for the first time. South Africa is a great place to do business with a huge amount of exceptionally talented people. I'm genuinely thrilled by this latest addition to the Group.”

Smart4Energy’s CEO, Ryan Forbes, added "We have exciting plans to grow our business and we believe the nGAGE platform provides us with the best opportunity to do that coupled with the experience the team at nGAGE brings and the investment capital for growth. I’m proud of the team I’ve built at Smart4Energy and excited about what we can achieve in the future with backing from nGAGE.

This is also good news for our clients and candidates as we help them on their journey to Net Zero” nGAGE’s Cook said: “Ryan has an outstanding track record over the last 20 years and we are proud to be backing him to take his business onto greater success in the future. Its specialist energy focus sits perfectly in nGAGE’s STEM offering. We look forward to working with Ryan and his team.”