Wilmington Regulatory News (WIL)

16 Oct 2006 07:01

Wilmington Group Plc16 October 2006 Embargoed until 0700 16 October 2006 WILMINGTON GROUP plc ACQUISITION OF MERCIA GROUP LIMITED Wilmington Group plc ("Wilmington" or "the Group"), the professional informationand training group, is pleased to announce the acquisition of Mercia GroupLimited ("Mercia"). Wilmington's wholly-owned subsidiary, Central Law Training Limited ("CLT"), hasacquired 82.7% of the issued share capital of Mercia for a consideration of£7.1m in cash. CLT has also entered into put and call option arrangements forthe acquisition of the outstanding 17.3% of Mercia to be acquired by 2016. Themaximum aggregate consideration payable for 100% of Mercia will be £11.5m. Mercia which was established in 1979, employs 70 staff and an extensive team ofpresenters. It is one of the largest independent providers of training andsupport services to the accountancy profession. Mercia has a client base ofapproximately 4,000 independent accounting practices including over 1,000subscription clients. Mercia is a well established and profitable businessproviding training and publishing for accountancy firms including:- • a complete practical training programme for the independent accountancy practice; • marketing support for individual firms; and • a range of technical manuals supporting documents, practice reviews and general technical support for accountancy practices. In the year ended 30 June 2006 Mercia's turnover was £6.35m (2005: £5.78m) andit generated profit before tax of £687k (2005: £400k). As a result of the changeof ownership various costs will not now be incurred. On this basis, thenormalised profit before tax for the year ended 30th June 2006 would have been£890k. The acquisition of Mercia will strengthen Wilmington's Legal & Regulatorydivision and will provide exciting opportunities for leveraging key brands anddatabases into the accountancy sector. The strategic fit of Mercia, whichprincipally serves the needs of accountants in private practice, and QuorumTraining, which was acquired in May 2005 and which principally works withfinance professionals in commerce and industry, will provide the opportunity forfurther growth. Charles Brady, Chief Executive of Wilmington, said: "We have known themanagement team of Mercia for many years. They have built a strong and growingsubscription based business serving the accountancy profession, which willcomplement CLT's 4600 subscription members in the legal market. We anticipatemany benefits for both companies". -ends- For further information, please contact: Wilmington Group Charles Brady, Chief Executive 0207 422 6800Basil Brookes, Finance Director Weber Shandwick Square MileNick Oborne, Kirsty Raper or Helen Thomas 0207 067 0700 Notes to Editors Wilmington Group plc is one of the UK's leading providers of information andtraining for professional business markets. The Group provides training,arranges industry events and publishes magazines, directories, databases andspecial reports focused primarily on its four principal sectors of Legal &Regulatory, Healthcare, Media & Entertainment and Design & Construction.Capitalised at approximately £175 million, Wilmington floated on the LondonStock Exchange in 1995. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange