Inspired Energy gobbles up Professional Cost Management Group

(Sharecast News) - Energy procurement consultant Inspired Energy completed the acquisition of Professional Cost Management Group (PCMG), a national cost recovery specialist, for an aggregate consideration of up to £0.7m cash on Tuesday.The AIM-traded firm said PCMG provides a "forensic auditing service" to identify and recover overpayments of utilities and telecoms bills on behalf of its clients, and provides optimisation analysis to enable customers to improve their tariff and billing structure.It reportedly recovered more than £100m for clients over the last 18 months, and had market expertise in the energy, water, telecoms and accounts payable sectors.Inspired Energy's board explained that, while it provided cost recovery services to its clients, the integration of PCMG would create a "market leading capability", allowing the group's existing customer base to further benefit from PCMG's specialisms.Conversely, it could also provide PCMG customers with the opportunity to benefit from the "broad service offering" of the enlarged group.The acquisition was expected to be earnings-enhancing in the 2020 financial year.Inspired Energy confirmed the acquisition was made on a cash free, debt free basis with the consideration to be satisfied by an initial cash payment of £0.15m to the shareholders of PCMG, with a potential further contingent consideration of up to £0.55m in aggregate to be satisfied in cash, subject to the achievement by PCMG of certain financial performance criteria based on future EBITDA performance.The initial cash payment was financed from Inspired Energy's existing cash reserves.It said the earn out consideration, if payable, was expected to be self-funding from future cash-flows generated by the enlarged group."We are delighted to conclude the acquisition of PCMG, which is a highly complementary addition to Inspired's core corporate division," said chief executive officer Mark Dickinson."The PCMG team and brand are well respected within the sector."We look forward to working closely with the highly experienced and knowledgeable team of PCMG and welcome them into our core corporate division as we continue to advance our position as a market leader."