Listed telecoms firm makes second Yorkshire acquisition
A £75m telecoms company has agreed to acquire Doncaster-based IT specialists ACS Group in a deal worth an initial £5.2m.
AdEPT Technology Group will acquire Advanced Computer Systems Group and its trading subsidiary Advanced Computed Systems – together the ACS group. The business specialises in IT services for the education sector.
This is not the company’s first foray into Yorkshire, having acquired Wakefield-based ETS Communications in November 2018 for £2.5m.
AdEPT will buy ACS for £5.24m minus the net debt of the ACS Group at 31 March 2019. A further consideration of up to £2.26m may be payable dependent upon the trading performance of ACS Group in the 12-month period ending 31 March 2020.
It expects the acquisition will help it increase revenues by around 9%.
ACS Group was founded in 1999 and now supports the IT function of approximately 200 schools and academy trusts. For the year to 31 December 2018, the company reported turnover of £5.5m, and pre-tax profits of £850,000.
Both of the owners of ACS Group are to be retained in their current capacity within the business for a period of at least 12 months post-acquisition.
AdEPT said that ACS Group’s services are complementary to the business, with a “highly skilled” team. Its Doncaster location also means that it can expand its geographical location into the South Yorkshire region, extending its existing education-focused centre of excellence based in Orpington.
Post-acquisition the AdEPT said it will look to consolidate supplier agreements and integrate various services of ACS Group into the Orpington office in Kent.
Phil Race, chief executive of AdEPT, said: “We are delighted to have acquired such a high-quality business with the highly experienced vendors remaining with ACS Group post-acquisition.
“AdEPT has an existing education focused IT service operation in Orpington – the acquisition of ACS Group builds on this capability and extends the geographical reach of AdEPT’s IT services to Yorkshire.
“ACS Group has a well-developed customer base with long term relationships, which builds upon AdEPT’s existing strong education presence. The acquisition is expected to be earnings enhancing from completion.”
Kevin McEwen, Managing Director of ACS, added: “After having operated the business for 20 years we felt the time right to look for a new home in order to provide our clients and prospects with a broader range of products and services.
“Our education focus, providing a broad range of expertise to more than 200 educational establishments, alongside our commercial clients means that AdEPT is an incredibly complementary home for our business.
“We very much look forward to working with the team at AdEPT on the integration and evolution of our business over the coming years.”
AdEPT has a market capitalisation of £75m and returned revenues of £46.4m for the year to 31 December 2018.
