BC Partners sells minority stake in Mergermarket Group to GIC

June 30, 2017 — Fusion DigiNet

 

Private equity firm BC Partners has sold a 30% stake in the Mergermarket Group to GIC, the Singapore headquartered investment firm.

Founded in London in 2000, Mergermarket is a global financial intelligence company, providing corporate financial news and analysis through a wide variety of different products. It offers proprietary, forward-looking and actionable intelligence that cannot be accessed elsewhere, to a wide range of investor, advisory and corporate subscribers. Today, the company has over 1,200 staff in 65 different locations worldwide.

Mergermarket was acquired by BC Partners via a carve-out from Pearson plc in 2014 for £382 million and since that time has delivered impressive double-digit top-line growth each year, with EBITDA approximately doubling over the period. BC Partners has worked closely with the Mergermarket management team on a number of key initiatives to accelerate this growth, including transforming its IT platform, enhancing the data offering, and supporting seven strategic add-on acquisitions that have expanded the business into new product areas.Following the transaction, BC Partners will continue to hold more than a 60% stake in Mergermarket and will work closely alongside GIC as the company embarks on its next chapter of growth.

Nikos Stathopoulos, Managing Partner at BC Partners, commented: “BC Partners invested in Mergermarket due to its must-have data and information, attractive subscription-based business model, consistent track record of growth and strong management team. The company has gone from strength to strength over the past three years of our ownership and we are delighted to welcome GIC as our new partner in Mergermarket’s next growth phase.”

Choo Yong Cheen, CIO of Private Equity at GIC, commented: “Mergermarket is a clear leader in its sector led by a strong management team. The Company provides subscribers with essential and often proprietary content, driving strong renewal rates and impressive long-term growth. We look forward to working with BC Partners and supporting the business in achieving its ambitions over the coming years.”

Hamilton Matthews, CEO at the Mergermarket Group, commented: “We are delighted to welcome GIC as our new partner alongside BC Partners. Our business has grown tremendously and it is a testament to the hard work of everyone at the group that we are now joined on our ongoing journey by another prestigious investor such as GIC. We look forward to working with both BC Partners and GIC in exploring the exciting opportunities in front of us.”

UK, London and Singapore

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Inspired Energy acquires Horizon Energy Group in Ireland

June 29, 2017 — Fusion DigiNet

Inspired Energy is to acquire Horizon Energy Group Limited, an energy procurement consultancy with 34 employees, based in Cork, Ireland with customers including large Corporates, Public Sector bodies and SMEs. The acquisition will be part funded by a £9 million share placing.

Inspired will pay an initial Consideration of €9.0 million to acquire 90% of Horizon. Inspired has the option to acquire the outstanding balance of 10% for a further €1.0 million. Further deferred payments of up to €5.0 million are subject to achievement of financial performance targets for the periods ending 31 December 2017 and 31 December 2018.

Horizon’s management team, including Colin Barry, founder and MD of Horizon, will remain with the Group.

Commenting on the proposed acquisition, Janet Thornton, Chief Executive of Inspired, said: “Inspired continues to look to deliver on its growth strategy and Horizon provides an opportunity to drive growth from Inspired’s platform as it is an established business in a relatively untapped market. It will bring high earnings visibility, supported by a strong procurement corporate order book, and Horizon’s sales team will benefit from the cross-selling opportunities with access to Inspired’s broader capabilities, ultimately benefitting clients.”

“Ireland’s energy procurement sector is relatively underdeveloped compared to the UK, providing a significant opportunity for Inspired to deploy its expertise in increasing its presence in this market, leveraging the Enlarged Group’s experience of growth in the UK market.”

UK, Kirham, Lancashire & Ireland, Cork and Dublin

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XLMedia PLC acquires Securethoughts.com for $2M

June 27, 2017 — Fusion DigiNet

XLMdia PLC, a provider of performance marketing, has acquired Securethoughts.com, a US cyber security comparison website, for $2.0 million.

Ory Weihs, Chief Executive Officer of XLMedia, commented: “We are delighted to announce the acquisition of Securethoughts, our first and significant publishing asset in the fast growing cyber security sector. Securethoughts represents another excellent opportunity for XLMedia to increase its North American presence, diversify its revenues and establish a foothold in another vertical. This acquisition is a further step in executing our successful strategy of diversifying our activities and expanding into additional markets and geographies.”

Previous acquisitions:

UK, Jersey, St. Helier

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Mark Allen Group acquires Unity Media and Unity Exhibitions

June 23, 2017 — Fusion DigiNet

Mark Allen Group (MAG) has acquired Kent-based Unity Media Plc and its sister company, Unity Exhibitions Ltd.  The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Unity Media publishes a number of brands in the built environment. They include: Roofing, Cladding & Insulation (RCI), Glass & Glazing, Heating & Plumbing Monthly, Building Products and Your Build. 

Unity Exhibitions Ltd organises the annual RCI Show, to be next held in November at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry.

This is the second acquisition MAG has made this year and follows the purchase two months ago of the special educational needs’ exhibition, TES SEN Show, from TES Global Ltd.

Unity Media, which was set up in 1995 and has been owned by Dennis and Jean Taylor, will be moving from its offices in Sevenoaks in July to MAG’s Dartford base.

Mark Allen, the Chairman of MAG said: “Like me, Dennis is a member of the Stationers’ Company that represents publishing, print and packaging and we got to know one another over a dinner at Stationers’ Hall. When he told me that his business-to-business brands would be up for sale, I was immediately interested. Dennis is a decent and honourable man so agreement was easy. We trust one another so we did not even sign an NDA.

UK, London & Dartford

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Time Out Group acquires its Time Out Australia Licensing Partner

June 5, 2017 — Fusion DigiNet

Time Out Group plc has acquired Print and Digital Publishing Pty Limited, the Group’s Australian licensing partner. The partner runs Time Out in five cities in Australia.

Launched in 2007, Time Out Australia has established a digital portfolio across online, mobile and social channels as well as highly-curated monthly magazines in Sydney and Melbourne.

The acquisition follows the addition of Time Out Hong Kong in March 2017 to the Group’s network of owned and operated businesses which now comprises 71 cities in 17 countries.

Julio Bruno, CEO of Time Out Group plc, said: “With the acquisition of Time Out Australia, we continue the global expansion of our iconic brand and our evolution as a worldwide digital, transactional business. I am delighted to welcome a very successful and trusted licensing partner and its team to our network of owned and operated businesses.

Time Out is hugely popular amongst both locals and visitors to Australia and has built considerable brand awareness. We are all looking forward to continuing to grow the brand and help this engaged audience to discover, book and share the very best of Australia’s cities with our unique, curated content and local expertise.”

UK, London & Australia, Glebe, NSW

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Ascential sells its 11 remaining UK-based Heritage Brands to Metropolis International for £23.5M

June 1, 2017 — Fusion DigiNet

Ascential plc , the business-to-business information company, has sold 11 of its remaining UK-based Heritage Brands to Metropolis International Limited for a consideration of £23.5m.

The 11 brands include Drapers, Nursing Times, Local Government Chronicle, Construction News, New Civil Engineer, Ground Engineering, H&V News / RAC, Retail Jeweller, Materials Recycling World and the architecture titles including Architects’ Journal, The Architectural Review and its associated World Architecture Festival.

On 5 January 2017 the Group announced that it had separated 13 Heritage Brands into a new operating entity and that these brands would develop an independent business strategy while new owners were sought. On 19 January 2017, Health Service Journal was sold to Wilmington plc for £19m in cash and, following the sale to Metropolis International, the sale process continues for the one remaining Heritage Brand, Meed.

In 2016, the 11 UK-based Heritage Brands generated revenue of £32.1m (2015: £34.6m) and adjusted EBITDA of £6.9m (2015: £8.0m). Gross assets at 31 December 2016 were £18m including intangibles.

Duncan Painter, CEO, Ascential, commented: “Ascential’s strategy is to focus on its top performing brands to drive sustainable organic growth. This sale concludes the process to secure the future of the UK Heritage Brands.”

UK, London

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Inspired Energy acquires Flexible Energy Management and Churchcom 

April 20, 2017 — Fusion DigiNet

inspired-logo3
Inspired Energy has acquired the trade and assets of Flexible Energy Management Limited and 100% of the shares in Churchcom Limited.

Flexible Energy Management Limited (FEM)

Founded in 2012 , FEM is a public sector energy procurement specialist, servicing a customer base comprising of NHS foundation trusts/hospitals and academic and sporting institutions, through two NHS sponsored OJEU frameworks*. The business is based in Manchester, the two Directors of FEM have over 20 years’ experience in the NHS. 

Inspired are paying £2.2 million in cash for FEM and in addition will issue of 2,993,653 new ordinary shares to the shareholders, who will remain with the business. For the financial year ended 31 March 2016, FEM delivered revenues of £0.65 million, EBITDA of £0.47 million and generated operating cash of £0.47 million.

Churchcom Limited

Churchcom is an energy procurement consultant based in Peterlee, County Durham. Churchcom operates under two trading divisions, Church Energy Purchasing Group, which specialises in energy procurement for churches and Energy Partners, offering energy procurement services for commercial customers, complementing Inspired’s core Corporate Division.

Inspired are paying £1.4 million in cash for Churchcom. For the financial year ended 31 January 2017, Churchcom delivered revenues of £0.64 million, EBITDA of £0.35 million and generated operating cash of £0.47 million. Net assets as at 31 December 2016 stood at £0.24 million. The founder directors of Churchcom have sold the business in order to retire and will leave after a handover period.

Commenting on the acquisitions, Janet Thornton, CEO of Inspired Energy said: “We are delighted to conclude the acquisition of Flexible Energy Management and Churchcom, which are highly complementary additions to the Group’s core corporate division. These acquisitions broaden our customer base, further enhance our sector specialisms and increase our geographical spread. “

The acquisitions are being financed from the Group’s existing financial resources, with funding provided by an extension to the Group’s existing £3.5 million acquisition facility with Santander to £5.1 million.

* OJEU frameworks are framework agreements which govern the procurement process for Public Sector Bodies with the intention of improving the effectiveness of the tender process. The frameworks are subject to the rules of Regulation 33 of the Public Contracts Regulation 2015 which transposes Article 33 of Directive 2014/24/EU.

UK, Kirham, Lancashire & Manchester & Peterlee, County Durham

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Energy Services Group acquires Utiligroup

April 18, 2017 — Fusion DigiNet

ESG logoEnergy Services Group (ESG), the retail energy industry’s provider of SaaS solutions including transaction management (EDI), billing and CIS, wholesale energy services, and sales and pricing, supported by private equity firm Accel-KKR, has acquired UK-based Utiligroup from NorthEdge Capital. Founded in 1997, Utiligroup is a provider of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions to the utilities and energy industries. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

NorthEdge initially backed Utiligroup in a £16.1 million management buyout from owners Bglobal (now part of Energy Assets Group) in June 2014. Story Link

Global had acquired Utiligroup in 2010 for a reported maximum consideration of up to £12.8 million. Story Link

UtiligroupThe sale to ESG is the fifth exit from NorthEdge’s maiden £225m Fund I and has generated a gross 5.7x return on investment. NorthEdge is reinvesting alongside
Accel-KKR as part of the new deal.

“ESG continues to build on our strategy of providing best-in-class technology solutions and services to energy resellers and empowering energy choice around the world,” said CEO Phil Galati. “We are incredibly excited about the opportunity to grow our market presence and strengthen our product offerings through the partnership with Utiligroup.”

According to Matthew Hirst, CEO at Utiligroup, “We have built a leadership position in the UK market by consistently innovating, using our deep industry expertise to help our customers grow and evolve with the market.” “We look forward to this next chapter, bringing the best of ESG and Utiligroup to our customers across the globe.”

The UK entity will continue operations as Utiligroup, and Matthew Hirst will remain as CEO of the UK business, reporting to Phil Galati, ESG CEO.  Matthew will also join the board of directors of ESG.

The acquisition of Utiligroup by ESG follows the acquisition of Latitude Technologies in November 2016.

USA, Norwell, MA and UK, Chorley, UK

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Reed Business Information sells New Scientist

April 13, 2017 — Fusion DigiNet

New ScientistReed Business Information (RBI) has sold New Scientist and its associated products and events to Kingston Acquisitions Limited, a company established by the former management team of Times Educational Supplement for the purpose of acquiring New Scientist. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

First published in 1956, New Scientist is a weekly science and technology magazine. The magazine covers current developments, news, reviews and commentary on science and technology. It also publishes speculative articles, ranging from the technical to the philosophical. A readers’ letters section discusses recent articles, and discussions also take place on the website. It has an average circulation (ABC audit) of 125,000, 82% print and 18% digital. 56% of it circulation is in the UK and Ireland, 44% ROW.

Kingston Acquisitions is led by by Sir Bernard Gray. Gray spent nearly ten years as a journalist at the Financial Times Group, including as a defence correspondent. Later he became chief executive of UBM’s, CMP Information. In 2005 Gray was appointed chief executive of TSL Education Limited, publisher of the Times Educational Supplement, when it was acquired by Exponent. He has been a defence adviser on defence spending to both the labour and conservative governments.

RBI is part of Relx (formerly Reed Elsevier). Relx has sold off the majority of its magazine publishing businesses. Its strategy is to move away from print revenues and instead to develop information-based analytics and decision tools that deliver enhanced value to customers.

UK, London

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Euromoney acquires a 49% stake in BroadGroup

March 31, 2017 — Fusion DigiNet

Euromoney has acquired an initial 49% stake in BroadGroup, a London-based events and publishing business operating in the fast-growing area of data centre and cloud services, together with their financing. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

BroadGroup was founded in 2002 by an entrepreneur Philip Low who, over the past decade, has successfully built and hosted a series of events for data centre, cloud and IT infrastructure executives. In June, BroadGroup hosts its flagship event, Datacloud Global Congress, an annual event in Monaco attended by delegates from more than 50 countries and has additional events in the Nordic and Asia markets. It is the leading networking and deal making forum for data centre and cloud IT infrastructure end-users, software, solutions providers, investors and a broad range of companies engaged in the sector.

BroadGroup will be managed as part of Rosalind Irving’s Telcap portfolio, expanding Euromoney’s presence in the telecoms markets.

Rosalind Irving stated: “We admire the position in the market occupied by BroadGroup’s events and we feel that the business has excellent growth potential. This can be maximised by our two organisations joining forces to offer a valuable series of events for the dynamic and rapidly developing telecoms market”

“BroadGroup is focused on continued growth in data centre markets globally, and this exciting project joining forces with Euromoney allows us to accelerate the expansion of our flagship brands to become leaders in each region,” said Philip Low, chairman. “This new opportunity reinforces our strategy to deliver value for our customers, sponsors and delegates at events around the world.”

UK, London

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