GB Group buys Shop Direct data unit
IDENTITY checking firm GB Group has agreed to pay £6m for a division of the Liverpool-based Shop Direct group.
The firm, based in Chester, said the acquisition of CDMS, which trades as Transactis, will beef up its Identity Intelligence arm and bring recurring revenues from blue chip customers, such as Nationwide Building Society, Betfair, HMRC and Shop Direct Group.
GB is paying £4.5m in cash and a further £500,000 in shares. There’s also a deferred share payment of £1m.
Transactis specialises in pulling together transaction data and identifying consumer trends and fraud. In the year to June 30 it had a gross profit of £3.7m on sales of £6.3m.
GB has two main divisions, DataAuthentication which offers an identity verification service aimed at tackling ID fraud, money laundering and under-age gambling, and DataSolutions, which provides clients with information on their customers.
Chief executive Richard Law said: “Transactis has made a considerable investment over the last few years to create a strong technology platform and attracted some excellent customers in both the public and private sectors.
“This acquisition will add a valuable data asset which can be deployed in our existing software products and further strengthens GBG’s identity intelligence credentials.”
CDMS Ltd was advised by the Manchester office of tech-focused investment bank GP Bullhound.
