Ideagen plc Acquires Pentana Ltd

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Ideagen (AIM; IDEA), a leading supplier of Compliance based Information Management Software to highly regulated industries, is pleased to announce the acquisition of the entire issued share capital of Pentana Limited and its subsidiary Pentana Inc ("Pentana") for an initial net cash consideration of £2.25 million ("the Acquisition") payable from Ideagen's existing cash reserves.
 
Acquisition Highlights

• Pentana is a software company established in 1992 that has developed several proprietary Information Management software solutions for highly regulated organisations
• It has approximately 350 customers, including eight of the top 10 UK accounting firms
• The Acquisition:

-  delivers strong IP in the area of Governance, Risk & Compliance ("GRC") that can be readily integrated into Ideagen's Compliance platform
-  provides Ideagen with a strong entry point into the financial services sector and the outsourced risk and compliance market
-  delivers significant cross-selling opportunities

• Ideagen and Pentana have identified £0.4m of synergies, which the Directors anticipate will be achievable during the 12 month period ending 30 April 2015 and will deliver significant operational efficiencies and cost savings across the enlarged Group
• The Acquisition is therefore expected to be earnings enhancing in the first full financial period following completion of the Acquisition, ie for the 12 month period ending 30 April 2015
• Consideration:

-  initial cash consideration of £3.425m
-  Pentana has net cash reserves of £1.175m, giving net initial cash consideration of £2.25m
-  additional cash consideration of up to £0.8m will be payable should certain recurring revenue targets be met over the 12 months following completion
-  the maximum net cash consideration is therefore £3.05m
-  the net consideration will be met from Ideagen's existing cash reserves
·     In the year to 31 December 2012 Pentana achieved revenue of £2.4m and profit before tax of £0.01m 
·     Pentana currently has recurring revenues of approximately £1.4m
·     Pentana directors Ken Ebbage and Terry Perkins will remain with the enlarged Group
 
David Hornsby, CEO, commented; "I am delighted to announce the acquisition of Pentana which we believe will augment the Group both strategically and financially, thereby enhancing shareholder value. Pentana has established an extremely compelling value proposition comprising strong IP and long-term relationships with its extensive customer base which includes most of the top UK Accounting firms.
 
"The combination of Pentana and Ideagen will enable the enlarged Group to rapidly develop new markets and we believe provides an outstanding opportunity to leverage the growing risk and compliance outsource market. We are confident that we can make the Pentana business significantly more profitable over the next 12 months as we integrate it into the rest of the group."