Nasdaq giant agrees purchase of software group
Global software group Verint has agreed a £26.3m takeover of Staffordshire-based eg Solutions.
The deal has been agreed between the two boards and is backed by irrevocable undertakings from shareholders which own 68% of the company.
eg reported revenues of £8.2m and adjusted EBITDA of £1.2min the 12 months to January 2017, and expects profits – as measured by adjusted EBITDA – to rise substantially this year to above £1.9m.
The offer price of 112.5p “is an attractive exit price when viewed against the fundamentals of the business”, according to eg Solutions’ non-executive chairman Nigel Payne.
Although the company’s share price closed at 126.5p, it has risen sharply in recent weeks having been below 75p in mid-June.
Payne added: “Other than in the period since late July 2017, we also believe that there have been no trades in EG Shares at a level at or above the Offer Price in the last decade.”
Nasdaq-listed Verint is headquartered in New York and has a market value of $2.5bn. Its customer engagement and cyber intelligence software is used in 180 countries and it expects eg’s business can strengthen its own offer.
eg provides back-office optimisation software solutions to companies across a range of sectors including financial services, utilities and government. It operates mainly in the UK but has operations overseas, including the United States, Singapore, India and South Africa.
It was founded in 1988 and floated on the Alternative Investment Market in June 2005. However it has suffered from an “illiquid shareholder register” which it blames for volatility in its share price and does not believe significant volumes of its shares could be traded at its current level.
