Tribal Grp. Regulatory News (TRB)

Tribal Group plc

Acquisition of Sky Software Pty Ltd

Tribal Group plc ("Tribal"), a leading provider of technology-enabled management solutions to the international education, learning and training markets, is pleased to announce that it has acquired the entire issued share capital of Sky Software Pty Limited ("Sky Software").

Sky Software is a provider of cloud-based student management systems to the vocational and higher education markets in Australia, the Asia Pacific region and elsewhere in the world. Based in Geelong, near Melbourne, Australia, Sky Software's system complements Tribal's portfolio of education management systems, as it caters for smaller institutions, and offers strong operating synergies. The founding executive team will continue to lead the business as it moves forward with Tribal. Sky Software has a growing pipeline of new business opportunities, and as a result the transaction is expected to be earnings accretive in the year ended 31 December 2014.

Initial consideration for the entire issued share capital of Sky Software on a debt-free/cash-free basis will be A$4m, with up to a further A$17m payable in deferred contingent consideration, dependent on the future earnings growth of Sky Software over the period ending 31 December 2017. All consideration payments will be satisfied in cash from Tribal's cash resources available through its existing revolving credit facility.

The unaudited loss before tax of Sky Software for the year ended 30 June 2013, restated in accordance with IFRS, was A$0.6m and the value of gross assets at that time was A$4.5m.

Keith Evans, Chief Executive of Tribal, commented: "Our strategic priority is to provide our customers with evidence-based systems and solutions that will support the on-going improvement of educational outcomes. The Sky Software product set fits well with the Tribal product strategy and provides a cloud-based smaller education provider solution. Its current customer base will also extend our reach and profile in the wider Asia Pacific region."

Nick Stanley, Chief Executive and co-founder of Sky Software, commented: "Sky Software is at an exciting point in its development and the combination with Tribal will provide the additional resources and breadth of expertise required to ensure its success over the coming years."

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Editors' note:

Tribal supports the delivery of education, learning and training services around the world. We build world-leading software, support adult learning, careers and professional development and provide school inspections and improvement services both in the UK and internationally.

We work in partnership with a wide range of organisations, including schools, colleges and universities, prisons and social services, government agencies and large and small employers.

Tribal has around 1,400 staff and our work spans five continents across the world. More information about Tribal is available online at www.tribalgroup.com. 

This Statement has been prepared for and is addressed only to our shareholders as a whole and should not be relied on by any other party or for any other purpose. Tribal, its directors, employees, agents or advisers do not accept or assume responsibility to any other person to whom this Statement is shown or into whose hands it may come and any such responsibility or liability is expressly disclaimed. This Statement may contain forward-looking statements and the financial information is unaudited. Any forward-looking statement has been made by the directors in good faith based on the information available to them up to the time of approval of this Statement and should be treated with caution due to the inherent uncertainties, including both economic and business risk factors, underlying such forward-looking information. To the extent that this Statement contains any statement dealing with any time after the date of its preparation, such statement is merely predictive and speculative as it relates to events and circumstances which are yet to occur and therefore the facts stated and views expressed may change. Tribal undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements.