Communisis makes £12.6m acquisition
PRINTING group Communisis has acquired data services business Absolute Intuistic in a deal worth £12.6m.
The Leeds-based company’s move is part of chief executive Steve Vaughan’s plan to increase its range of services to customers and diversify from its traditional printing operation.
Absolute Intuistic (Ai), based in London, employs 37 people and had pre-tax profits of £750,000 on turnover of £6.7m in the year to August 31.
It works with clients including Royal Bank of Scotland, BT and Lloyds TSB on data to improve their direct marketing by targetting the most attractive prospective customers who will prove the most profitable and lowest risk.
At August 31 Ai had gross assets of £2.8m and no net debt.
Communisis is paying £4.6m up front and up to another £8m based on Ai’s financial performance over the next two years.
The firm’s management team are staying with the business following the acquisition.
Mr Vaughan said: “We are delighted to be acquiring Ai. It is an attractive and high quality business, with strong management that has a track record of building long-term contractual relationships with clients.
“Customer data is the thread that runs through all of our services. The team at Ai is excellent at providing high quality analysis and segmentation to drive smarter campaigns.
“These services will be a great fit with our recent investments in sophisticated campaign delivery and will complement our scale in direct marketing. We share lots of customers, and expect to be able to begin cross-selling between our client bases once integration is complete.
“In the past six months we have disposed of the Bath Business Forms business, the most commoditised of our offerings, and recycled some of the proceeds into the very top end of our value proposition – data intelligence. It’s a perfect fit with our strategy,” he added.
The Leeds office law firm Eversheds advised Communisis on the deal.
The Eversheds team was led by corporate partner Amanda Atkinson, supported by associate Wyn Jones.
Ms Atkinson said: “Communisis’ strategy to develop and increase its range of value-added services for customer communication means this acquisition is a logical step in this investment stream and we are pleased to have worked with Communisis in securing this deal.”
Roxburgh Milkins acted for the sellers.
