Acquisitions, issue of shares and Rule 2.9 anno...

Acquisitions, issue of shares and Rule 2.9 announcement

Next Fifteen Communications Plc

Next Fifteen Communications Group plc

Acquisition of Green Leads Holdings LLC and of IT Telemarketing Services Limited to Strengthen Customer Delivery Businesses

Next Fifteen Communications Group plc (“Next 15” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce two acquisitions that strengthen its largest businesses in its Customer Delivery segment: Activate and Agent3. This area of business drives lead generation and Account-based Marketing (ABM) programmes using digital channels for customers in the B2B technology sector. Under the respective terms of the deals, Activate Marketing Services LLC (“Activate”) has acquired the entire outstanding membership interests of Green Leads Holdings LLC (“Green Leads”) and Agent 3 Limited (“Agent3”) has acquired the entire issued share capital of IT Telemarketing Services Limited (“ITTS”). Both transactions completed on 31 May 2022.

As part of the acquisition of Green Leads an application has been made to admit to trading on AIM 73,556 ordinary shares of 2.5 pence each in the Company (“Ordinary Shares”). These Ordinary Shares will, upon issue, rank parri passu with the existing ordinary share capital of the Company. It is expected that admission will become effective on 10 June 2022.

Green Leads is a US-based demand generation business that uses a range of products and services to help sales functions develop, and set up specific appointments, on behalf of B2B technology businesses. This acquisition will allow Activate to expand their high-value lead generation products and provide the business with additional strong leadership. Green Leads had revenue of $4.5 million in the year to 31 December 2021.

ITTS offers a combination of digital marketing and telemarketing products to generate high quality first party data for its customers sales activities. These services will be integrated with Agent 3’s ABM offering, which like Activate, is targeted towards the B2B technology sector. For the year to 28 February 2022 ITTS generated revenue of £1.2 million.

The acquisitions are expected to be earnings accretive for Next 15 in the current financial year.

Tim Dyson, CEO of Next 15, commented: “These are relatively small but important additions to our Customer Delivery businesses. Both are focused on first party data in the last mile of the lead generation process and offer services that we had previously outsourced. These deals will enable both businesses to offer a better, more integrated set of products in this high growth area of our business.”

Next 15 is also pleased to report that, as stated in its announcement on 20 May 2022 of its proposed recommended acquisition of the entire issued and to be issued ordinary share capital of M&C Saatchi plc, overall, revenue growth has continued to be strong, helped by the strength of the US dollar. For the three-month period to 30 April 2022, Next 15 Group’s total revenues increased by approximately 68 per cent. compared with the same period last year, to £130 million, with organic revenue growth of approximately 37 per cent. Adjusted profit before tax for the same three-month period to 30 April 2022 is also ahead of management expectations.

Performance has been strong across all four areas of the Next 15 Group, with each segment showing encouraging organic revenue growth of at least 15 per cent. in the three months to 30 April 2022. Next 15’s businesses in the US have been performing above expectations, the onboarding of Engine has been progressing well and the new Mach49 contract, announced on 23 February 2022, is off to an encouraging start.

Following the issue of shares above, in accordance with Rule 2.9 of the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers, the Company confirms that, as at 10 June 2022, it will have 98,222,313 Ordinary Shares of 2.5 pence each in issue. No shares are held in treasury.

The International Securities Identification Number for Next 15's ordinary shares is GB0030026057

Enquiries:
Next Fifteen Communications Group plc
Tim Dyson, CEO		[phone]
Peter Harris, CFO		[phone]
Numis
Mark Lander, Hugo Rubinstein		[phone]
Berenberg
Ben Wright, Mark Whitmore, Arnav Kapoor		[phone]

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