Fusion Corporate Partners

BidEnergy, an Australian company which provides Utility Bid Expense Management Solutions in Australia, the UK and the USA, has acquired energy management software business Optima Energy Systems, a Skipton, UK-based energy management software business providing: bill validation, budgets and accruals, and tenant and self-billing.

Terms of the transaction

Bid is paying £5.4 million for Optima, plus a conditional Deferred Payment as follows:

• £3.2 million, payable in cash upfront
• 3.384 million Bid shares are to be issued to Optima vendors at an issue price of A$1.16 per share (~A$3.9m)
• Shares will be subject to escrow as follows
  • 25% – 9 months from completion
  • 50% – 12 months from completion
  • 25% – 15 months from completion
• A Deferred Payment, payable in cash, subject to Optima achieving certain performance milestones regarding revenue and costs within the year following the Completion Date
• The “Deferred Payment” has two components:
  • A £250,000 payment on achievement of certain recurring cost reductions prior to 31 March 2021; and
  • A payment based on recurring run rate revenues achieved in the Optima business in the 12 months following completion (Bid has provisioned for a payment of F750,000, but the payment could be higher or lower).
• Steve Wright, Optima’s Managing Director will remain engaged by Optima for at least 12 months, with the potential for a consultancy arrangement thereafter.

The transaction terms value Optima at a multiple of 2.9 times FY20 revenue.

The Optima acquisition adds a further A$3.4m1 to Bid’s annualised subscription revenue, taking overall expected group earnings to A$17.9m as at Nov. 2020

Optima was established in 1998 and has 127 full time employees. In the year to 31 March 2020 Optima had unaudited revenue of £2.18 million and was EBITDA positive (figure not disclosed). The company directly manages energy data for 51 clients, who in turn are responsible for 196,400+ meters under management across the UK. Clients are multi-site MNCs, TPI/Brokers, property management agents, etc

Bid already had a long term relationship with Optima, having provided data collection services to support a limited part of their core business.

Full transaction details here

Australia, Melbourne and UK, Yorkshire