Marlowe acquires Barbour EHS from Informa

(Sharecast News) - Business software and services company Marlowe has acquired Barbour Environment, Health and Safety from Informa, it announced on Thursday, for a net cash consideration of £32m.
The AIM-traded firm said Barbour EHS, based in London and established in 1957 as a print-based regulatory catalogue, had evolved into a "leading" regulatory software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform, providing data, information and insights to more than 1,000 customers.

Barbour EHS' legal registers, regulatory trackers, editorial insight and workflow tools provided customers with a "holistic, cloud-based" environmental, health and safety solution, Marlowe said, which helped them to meet their legal and regulatory compliance requirements.

The board described the acquisition as a "major development" in Marlowe's digital strategy to become the market leader in compliance software.

Positioned alongside Marlowe's existing health and safety capabilities, the directors said they believed that the addition of Barbour EHS would allow the group to offer its clients a "broad spectrum" of consulting, software, assurance and intelligence.

Barbour EHS would further expand Marlowe's base of SaaS subscription revenues, and would offer cross-selling opportunities with its existing health and safety consulting and software activities, particularly its governance, risk and compliance division's existing health and safety, e-learning and compliance software business lines.

In the year ended 31 December, Barbour EHS generated revenues of £5.4m, and was expected to generate £3.0 million of adjusted EBITDA under Marlowe ownership.

The consideration was payable in cash on completion, and was being funded from Marlowe's existing cash and debt facilities.

"The acquisition of Barbour is a major step in expanding Marlowe's position in the UK's fast-growing governance, risk and compliance software market," said chief executive officer Alex Dacre.

"In combination with our portfolio of compliance software products, we believe that Barbour's platform enables us to offer clients a complete regulatory solution which enhances their visibility and understanding of evolving standards and regulations and assists them in managing their environmental, health & safety risks.

"We continue to make strong progress on our digital strategy to grow Marlowe's compliance software revenues and the acquisition of Barbour marks a significant milestone in increasing our base of SaaS subscription revenues, providing further cross-selling opportunities and strengthening our position in this important and attractive market."

At 1100 BST, shares in Marlowe were down 0.38% at 784p.