San Francisco, Mar 12 (IANS): Infrastructure engineering software company Bentley Systems has said that it entered into an approximately $1.05 billion agreement to acquire Seequent, a global leader in 3D modelling software for the geosciences.

The acquisition of Seequent is expected to initially add approximately 10 per cent to each of Bentley Systems' key financial metrics and is expected to be measurably accretive to Bentley's organic growth rate, the company said on Thursday.

Upon closing, Seequent will operate as a stand-alone Bentley subsidiary, with Seequent's current Chief Operating Officer Graham Grant, succeeding its retiring CEO Shaun Maloney, reporting to Bentley's Chief Product Officer Nicholas Cumins.

"We can be very confident about Seequent's contribution to our shared future not only because of our product synergies, but because we recognize in Seequent's trajectory an echo of the playbook that made Bentley Systems successful - except they have grown faster," Bentley's CEO Greg Bentley said in a statement.

Seequent, founded and headquartered in Christchurch, New Zealand, has more than 430 employees in 16 office locations, serving geologists, hydrogeologists, geophysicists, geotechnical engineers, and civil engineers in over 100 countries, and the world's top mining companies.

Its established presence in mineral-intensive geographies such as South America and southern Africa is expected to accelerate Bentley's overall opportunities in these regions with significant infrastructure requirements.

In turn, Bentley's established presence in China, and its mainstay reach across civil engineering sectors, is expected to accelerate Seequent's expansion in new markets.