NCC buys US escrow firm for £5.9m
IT assurance company NCC Group has made a fresh acquisition in the US.
The listed Manchester company has bought Escrow Associates, a software escrow company, for a maximum consideration of up to £5.9m ($9.5m) in cash.
Atlanta-based Escrow Associates has 10 staff and provides independent escrow solutions to approximately 1,000 clients predominately located in North America.
The deal will boost NCC’s share of the US escrow market and alos widens its international presence as many of Escrow Associates’ clients are multi-national corporates.
For the year to December 2010, Escrow Associates’ revenue was $2.2m, including approximately $2m of annual recurring revenues. Earnings before interest and tax were $0.8m.
The directors of Escrow Assocates are remaining with the business, which ill trade as “Escrow Associates, an NCC Group Company.”
Rob Cotton, NCC Group chief executive, said: “Our stated strategy is to develop our international presence in both businesses with a combination of organic and acquisitive growth.
“This very exciting, earnings enhancing acquisition is another important step in strengthening our world leading position and particularly in North American – both in terms of scale and geographical coverage.
“It increases the number of software applications and the number of multi-national businesses protected by our escrow solutions.
“Research shows that whilst 97% of organisations depend on business-critical software applications, only 18% protect all of these with escrow solutions. We are increasingly well placed to exploit this market opportunity internationally.”
Last October NCC Group splashed out £14.4m on San Francisco-based ethical security testing firm iSEC.
