ATQT.L Share News (ATQT)

(ShareCast News) - Visual merchandising, eCommerce site search and personalised recommendation technology provider ATTRAQT Group announced on Monday that it has entered into a conditional agreement to acquire the entire issued share capital of Fredhopper.At the same time, the AIM-traded company also announced a conditional firm placing and open offer to raise up to £28.5m before expenses.The net proceeds of the placing and offer will be used primarily to fund the acquisition, the board said.It described Fredhopper as a cloud-based provider of onsite search, navigation, recommendation and visual merchandising solutions through a global software-as-a-service platform, with a large recurring revenue base which accounted for 90% of total revenues in FY16.Fredhopper had a "considerable number" of long-standing key customer relationships, of which the top eight have grown by 58% per annum between FY14 and FY16.The most notable of those was ASOS, which ATTRAQT said had been a key contributor to the growth of the Fredhopper business.It described the acquisition as a "transformational opportunity" to bring critical mass to ATTRAQT, with the enlarged group set to have a strong presence in the UK, US and continental Europe with approximately 250 clients."As independent companies, ATTRAQT and Fredhopper have each built strong reputations, delivering products that significantly improve conversion rates and increase sales for their 250 e-commerce retail customers," said chairman Nick Habgood."Bringing the two businesses together will allow us to accelerate investment in sales and marketing, customer support and in on-going product development."Habgood said increasing ATTRAQT's presence in the North American market was a particular focus."Our objective is to deliver strong profitable growth whilst becoming a global technology partner of choice to leading online retailers."