Last checked at 4 Jul 2011 07:00
4 July 2011
ACCESS INTELLIGENCE PLC
Sale of Solcara Ltd for £2,500,000
Access Intelligence plc ("Access" or "the Group") is pleased to announce that it has sold its wholly owned subsidiary Solcara Ltd ("Solcara") to Thomson Reuters (Professional) UK Limited for a sum of £2,500,000. The proceeds are payable in cash at completion other than a sum of £250,000 which will be held in escrow as a retention against warranties and indemnities for 12 months. The proceeds of the disposal will be applied to general working capital.
Solcara, which sells federated search technology to the legal profession and in-house legal teams, was purchased in November 2008 at a cost of £750,000. At that time Solcara was also selling products into the stakeholder communication space (Spotlight) and crisis management space (ControlPoint). Soon after acquisition the Access board decided that we should create a specialist search business concentrating on the legal market. To that end the IP and customer base of the two non-legal market products 'Spotlight' and 'ControlPoint' were transferred out to other Access group companies so creating a 'legal market specialist'. Since December 2009 the reshaped Solcara has been growing strongly, building its customer base amongst law firms and in-house legal departments whilst investing in its software. Solcara is a stand alone company and its disposal has no impact on any other element of the Group.
In the year to 30th November 2010 Solcara had sales of £749,644 and operating profits of £19,341. The net assets of the company at 31st May 2011 were £149,986
Trading Update
In the 6 months ended 30th May 2011 most of the Group has been trading in line with expectations. Due North Ltd. and AIMediaCommunications Ltd. in particular have had a successful first six months and are continuing to add new public sector clients and broaden their private sector client base. The public sector is undoubtedly cutting budgets but we have seen very few contract cancellations. Notwithstanding the above the adjusted Ebitda for the 6 months ended 31st May 2011 will be no less than £430,000 (2010: £704,000) before deduction of £202,000 of one-off re-organisation costs on Cobent Ltd. which is still to return to profit.
Significant progress has been made in reshaping the Cobent business including the appointment of Heath Williams as Chief Executive Officer in May 2011. Since February 2009, Heath had been the Vice President of International Sales for US headquartered Plateau Inc. where, amongst other things, he successfully managed the transfer of a significant number of clients from on premise to SaaS based solutions.
During the first six months the Group has completed the restructuring of its capital base creating positive revenue reserves in the parent company allowing it to pay dividends in the future. The group cash balance at 30th May 2011 was £2,743,000, which will be added to by the net proceeds of the Solcara sale announced above.
Michael Jackson said today 'I am delighted with the sale of Solcara as it is vindication of our strategy that significant value can be created in software businesses when they have clear market focus and strong technology.'
For further information:
Access Intelligence plc
Michael Jackson (Executive Chairman) 020 7400 0485
Jeremy Hamer (Finance Director) 07977 234614
Northland CP 020 7796 8800
Shane Gallwey / Katie Shelton
Cubitt Consulting 020 7367 5100
Chris Lane / Alice Coubrough