Deal agreed by Seven for Datong

DATONG, the Yorkshire-based covert intelligence gathering specialist, is to be bought for almost £7m by Seven.

Leeds-based Datong put itself up for sale in February after an approach was made for the business.

Seven has offered 50p per Datong share, a 5p mark up on yesterday’s closing price and an 11p increase on the closing price when the initial approach was made, and is paying £6.92m for the company.

The deal for Stock Market-quoted Datong will be funded by YFM and Seven’s own cash resources.

Seven is the parent company of Seven Technologies, based in Lisburn, County Antrim. It specialises in the field of specialist surveillance and systems for use in hostile environments. 

For the year ended 31 May 2012, Seven Technologies had revenue of £9.2m.
 
Acceptance from 61.5% of Datong’s directors and shareholder have accepted the offer. The offer is conditional upon at least 90% of shareholders accepting.
 
Richard Moon, chairman of Seven, said: “We are delighted that Datong will be joining Seven and we look forward to working with Mark Cook (chief executive) and his team to expand the range of offerings to our growing customer base. It is our intention to integrate the business into the Seven Group over the coming months.”
 
Paul Lever, chairman of Datong, added: “On behalf of the Board of Datong and its staff, we are excited by the agreement reached with Seven and look forward to a stronger future as a combined business.”

Click here to sign up to receive our new South West business news...
Close