LONDON (Alliance News) - Universe Group PLC on Wednesday said it has completed its majority acquisition of Irish company Camden Technology Investments Ltd, and its subsidiaries, for an initial EUR4.5 million payment plus shares.
Universe - which develops and supplies point-of-sale, payment, and loyalty systems - has paid an initial cash consideration of EUR4.5 million for Camden Technology and has also issued 22.8 million shares to acquire 95% of Camden technology's issued capital.
These shares issued are equivalent to 8.95% of Universe's enlarged share capital and have a put and call option exercisable after a year at a cost of EUR0.32 million payable in cash.
Camden Technology is based in Dublin and develops retail and wholesale management solutions. In 2017 it recorded a loss after tax of GBP570,000 on revenue of GBP1.9 million due to "significant investment in product and systems development".
The deal will be funded using existing cash resources as well as a new four-year GBP3.5 million term loan and new three-year GBP1.5 million revolving credit facility, both with HSBC.
The Camden Technology acquisition is due to be earnings enhancing in the first full of Universe ownership.
Universe Chief Executive Jeremy Lewis described Camden Technology as "a class-leading developer of cloud-based retail and wholesale management solutions" that will extend Universe's product offering to "include wholesaling and new geographies such as Ireland."
Shares in Universe were down 2.0% at 4.8 pence on Tuesday.
