Ebiquity PLC Acquisition of minority interest in subsidiary (6605B)
February 03 2020 - 1:00AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMEBQ
RNS Number : 6605B
Ebiquity PLC
03 February 2020
Ebiquity Plc
("Ebiquity" or the "Company")
Acquisition of minority interest in Italian subsidiary
Ebiquity plc, a leading independent marketing and media
consultancy, today announces it has entered into a conditional
share purchase agreement to acquire the remaining minority stake in
its Italian subsidiary Ebiquity Italy Media Advisor S.r.l
("Ebiquity Italy"), with the total consideration expected to be
EUR3.4 million.
Ebiquity Italy provides predominantly media benchmarking
services and has developed innovative services for measuring social
media and sports sponsorship performance. Ebiquity acquired a
majority stake in the subsidiary in 2010 with an option to acquire
the remaining stake at the appropriate time. Ebiquity Italy has
since achieved steady and consistent growth with forecast revenue
of EUR2.6m and operating profit of EUR1.1m for 2019. Approximately
70% of its revenue is derived from Italy-based clients and 30% from
global network clients. It has gross assets of EUR2.0m as at 31
December 2019.
As part of the transaction, Ebiquity will acquire the remaining
49% currently held by the subsidiary's founders, CEO Arcangelo
DiNieri (36.75%) and the General Manager Maria Gabrielli (12.25%)
(the "Founders"), who will retire from executive roles in the
business but will remain advisers to the business to ensure a
smooth transition. Giulia Biesuz, previously Media Client Service
Director, will succeed Arcangelo becoming Managing Director of the
subsidiary following the transaction.
The acquisition will be marginally earnings accretive and funded
through a combination of the Company's available cash resources and
a draw-down from its loan facility.
The acquisition constitutes a related party transaction under
AIM Rule 13 as the Founders are directors of Ebiquity Italy, a
subsidiary of the Company, and the purchase consideration exceeds
5% of the Company's current market value.
The directors of the Company, having consulted with Numis
Securities Limited in its capacity as the Company's nominated
adviser for the purposes of the AIM Rules, consider the terms of
the transaction to be fair and reasonable insofar as the Company's
shareholders are concerned.
The transaction is expected to complete in April 2020.
Alan Newman, Ebiquity's interim CEO said:
"Arcangelo and Maria have developed an excellent business and
strong market position in Italy. We look forward to building
further on their success under Ebiquity's full ownership."
3 February 2020
Enquiries:
Ebiquity plc
Alan Newman (Interim CEO)
Mark Sanford (Company Secretary) 020 7650 9600
Instinctif Partners
Matthew Smallwood
Guy Scarborough 020 7457 2020
Numis Securities Limited
Nick Westlake, Hugo Rubinstein
(NOMAD)
Matt Lewis 020 7260 1000
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END
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