Acquisition of Meridian Cost Benefit Limited

RNS Number : 3380T

Glantus Holdings PLC

24 November 2021

 

24 November 2021

THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION AS DEFINED IN ARTICLE 7 OF THE MARKET ABUSE REGULATION NO. 596/2014 ("MAR") WHICH IS PART OF UK LAW BY VIRTUE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION (WITHDRAWAL) ACT 2018. UPON THE PUBLICATION OF THIS ANNOUNCEMENT, THIS INSIDE INFORMATION IS NOW CONSIDERED TO BE IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.

GLANTUS HOLDINGS PLC

("Glantus", the "Company" or the "Group")

ACQUISITION OF MERIDIAN COST BENEFIT LIMITED ("MCB")

Highlights

-  Strategically significant and earnings enhancing acquisition.

-  Total consideration of up to £3.03m.

- UK-based MCB will provide Glantus with an additional forty four customers with over 60% of revenue from public sector. This will bring Glantus' enterprise customers to over 100.

-    MCB brings 20 years of expertise and experience in Accounts Payable recovery and specialist utility auditing services, bolstering Glantus' strong growth in the space.

- Addition of MCB team represents an expansion of Glantus' EMEA presence, adding more auditing and sales capabilities.

- MCB customers will be able to access more transformative AP tools through the integrated Glantus platform, such as procurement to payment, statement reconciliation, and data optimisation.

Summary

Glantus, the provider of Accounts Payable automation and analytics solutions, has acquired Meridian Cost Benefit Limited for a total consideration of up to £3.03 million (the "Acquisition").

Meridian Cost Benefit (MCB) is a provider of accounts payable recovery audits and specialist audits in telecom and utility contract compliance audits. Based in St Albans, UK, MCB provides recovery services across the United Kingdom. It has been trading since 2006 and has built up a considerable customer base. For the year ended 31 December 2020, MCB reported turnover of £1.4m and pre-tax profits of £366k.

The Acquisition offers the opportunity to cross-sell the individual technologies of both Glantus and MCB across the combined customer base, together with an acceleration of the Company's organic growth within the existing customer base.

About MCB and Acquisition Rationale

MCB has 44 UK customers, and brings the Glantus enterprise base to over 100. In addition, the Acquisition brings Glantus into the lucrative government and semi-state market which is in line with the strategic growth plans of the Glantus Executive Committee. The ability to reference customers in this market will allow Glantus to replicate the offering across government agencies in other geographies and with an average annual spend per enterprise customer in excess of an estimated $500 million, it provides an excellent opportunity for Glantus to expand its target customer profile. In addition, the Glantus platform will bring an integrated solution and capability to MCB customers, offering its product portfolio of Datashark, Statement Shark and Docushark.

Details of the Acquisition

Under the terms of the Acquisition, Glantus UK Ltd, the Company's wholly owned UK subsidiary, has acquired MCB for a total consideration of up to £3.03m, comprised of an initial consideration of £2.1m in cash on completion, £0.53m nine months after completion and £0.40m fifteen months after completion. The MCB vendors have also entered into a subscription agreement with the Company to subscribe £0.5m of the initial cash consideration received under the Acquisition in return for 581,395 new ordinary shares of €0.001 each in the Company (the "Subscription Shares"). The Subscription Shares are subject to a lock-period ending on the date of publication of the Company's annual accounts for the financial year ending 31 December 2021 and to an orderly marketing arrangement for a further period of 12 months thereafter.

The cash consideration under the Acquisition is being funded through the Company's existing cash resources.

Maurice Healy, CEO of Glantus, said: "We are delighted to have the MCB team join Glantus. This acquisition further strengthens the strategy we outlined at the time of the IPO. We welcome the wealth of experience the MCB team brings to Glantus EMEA. As we continue to shift the focus to subscription revenue the acquisition of MCB along with recent acquisitions of JPD and TIC consolidates our position in the AP market. This provides a greater opportunity to deploy our unique AP products driving our subscription revenue.

Peter Welch, Founder and CEO of Meridian Cost Benefit, said: "We recognize that customers are increasingly looking at automation and AI to drive further efficiencies in their financial processes. With Glantus, we now have the advanced technology platform and the team behind us to deliver additional services to our customers."

Application and Total voting rights

Application is being made for the admission to trading on AIM ("Admission") of the 581,395 Subscription Shares. It is expected that Admission will be effect on or around 29^th November 2021.

Following Admission, the total number of ordinary shares in issue will be 37,833,316, each with equal voting rights. The Company does not hold any rights in treasury. The total voting rights figure can be used by Shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine whether they are required to notify their interest in, or a change of their interest in, the Company under the Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules of the Financial Conduct Authority.

For further Information, contact :

Glantus Holdings plc                                                           + 353 (1) 8895300

Maurice Healy, CEO

[e-mail]

Arden Partners plc

Nominated Advisor and Broker

Ruari McGirr / Richard Johnson (Corporate)               [phone]

Simon Johnson (Broking)

Flagstaff Strategic and Investor Communications

Tim Thompson  + 44(0)20 7129 1474

Mark Edwards

Fergus Mellon

[e-mail]

Editor Notes:

Glantus (AIM:GLAN) is a global provider of Accounts Payable automation and analytics solutions. Our mission is to simplify data to drive constant innovation. The award-winning Glantus Data Platform provides an end-to-end AP solution that layers onto existing systems eliminating cost and delivering new revenue streams. Glantus has over three hundred customers across more than fifty countries, including Fortune 500 brands and large multi-nationals.

 

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