HELSINKI - Canada's largest publicly traded IT services business is moving to expand its presence in Europe through the acquisition of Affecto PLC in a friendly deal that would add about 1,000 staff in northern Europe.

CGI Group Inc. (GIBa.TO) -- which currently has 8,000 employees in the Nordic region -- is offering the equivalent of $146-million cash for Helsinki-based Affecto, or 4.55 euros per share.

That's 29.3 per cent above the closing price of Affecto shares at Monday's close on the Nasdaq Helsinki exchange.

The Montreal-based company's offer has several conditions, including that CGI gain control of more than 90 per cent of Affecto's shares.

CGI chief executive George Schindler says the addition of Affecto is part of a plan to profitably double the size of CGI over the next five to seven years.

CGI currently has about 70,000 employees in the Americas, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, making it one of the world's largest independent providers of IT and business process services.