PARIS (Reuters) - French software company Dassault Systemes DAST.PA has agreed to buy U.S. peer Exa Corp EXA.O in a deal valued at about $400 million, which Dassault said would boost its range of products for clients.

Exa said Dassault would offer $24.25 per share - a premium of about 43 percent compared to Exa’s closing stock price of about $17 on Wednesday - to buy out its shares, and that the transaction valued Exa at about $400 million.

“With Exa’s valuable application knowledge in transportation and mobility and other industry verticals, we will accelerate our delivery of industry solution experiences to benefit our existing and future customers,” Dassault Systemes Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Bernard Charles said in a statement.

Exa's clients include the likes of carmakers BMW BMWG.DE, Tesla TSLA.O and Toyota 7203.T, as well as planemaker Embraer EMBR3.SA.

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2017, the companies said in a joint statement.

Dassault has embarked on several acquisitions so far this year, including buying a majority stake in the cloud computing software firm Outscale and purchasing Dutch company AITAC.