Canadian PE giant swoops for telematics firm in £7.76m deal
A Canadian private equity firm is set to acquire telematics and data insight company Trakm8 in a £7.76m deal.
Brillian UK forms part of Omegro, which has a portfolio of more than 30 business units, 2,000 employees and more than 40 office locations across the globe. It’s a portfolio within Volaris, which is one of Constellation Software Inc.’s six operating groups.
Omegro says, unlike other types of private equity, it never sells the businesses it acquires.
Headquartered in Coleshill near Birmingham alongside its manufacturing facility, the group supplies the fleet, optimisation, insurance and automotive sectors to many well-known customers in the UK and internationally, including the AA, Stark, EON, Iceland Foods, Sainsbury’s, GSF, Direct Line Group, Ticker and Freedom Group.
Trakm8 has been hit by a slow recovery in the vehicle industry, alongside customers running down existing stock. It issued a profit warning after an anticipated contract fell through in March, and said revenues for 2025 would be under 10% lower than the £3.3m reported for 2024.
To reduce costs, Trakm8 has cut 18 jobs and moved more of its hosting requirements out of external cloud providers into Trakm8’s data centres, negotiated reductions in device communication costs and the costs of vehicle installations.
Despite its challenges, Brillian UK says that Trakm8 has developed a strong position in the UK market for technology solutions in fleet management, insurance telematics, optimisation and vehicle camera systems.
It believes that Trakm8 would “benefit from transitioning to private ownership with the support of a growth-focused shareholder, which can provide the capital and long-term view of value creation to enable the management team to continue to invest in Trakm8’s capabilities”.
Directors of Trakm8 hold 23.11% of the company’s share capital and have committed to vote in favour of the acquisition. Shareholders represent around 53.79% of the share capital of Trakm8 and have provided irrevocable undertakings to support the deal.
Troy O’Connor, co-chief executive officer of Omegro said: “We are delighted that our proposal has been recommended by the Board and are excited by the prospect of working with Trakm8 and its management team in the years ahead. Management have built a product portfolio which is well positioned to benefit from future growth in the fleet management, route optimisation and insurance telematics markets.
“The strategic fit of Trakm8 within the Omegro portfolio is compelling and with our long-term focus on our people, sustainable growth and delivering operational excellence, we expect to be able to create an enhanced customer proposition and leading business in the UK. Omegro believes Trakm8 is an ideal platform for continued growth and innovation in the fleet management vertical and we look forward to supporting Trakm8’s growth in the future.”
