Following yesterday’s AGM and subsequent statement, QSP is pleased to announce the acquisitions of Inform, an e-Business solutions provider, and Information, a Business Intelligence (BI) solutions provider, for a total initial consideration of £1.8m. These acquisitions will complement QSP’s established e-Business and BI practices.
Inform is a Glasgow-based specialist in e-Business solutions, partnering with IBM, Sun and Oracle. QSP has acquired 100% of the company for an initial consideration of £0.8m to be satisfied by 89,888 QSP shares upon completion and a further consideration of up to £5.7m dependent on the achievement of revenue growth targets in each of the three years to 31 March 2003.
Inform employs 25 staff and has consultancy revenues currently in excess of £1 million. It has a track record in providing total solutions to customers from the creation of an e-Business strategy through to implementation, including diagnosis, design, development and delivery. Its blue chip customers include IBM (UK), Abbey National and William Grant & Sons. The acquisition will both increase QSP’s offering to its existing customers and widen the customer base.
According to recent research from Forrester, the global market for business to business e-commerce solutions is forecast to exceed $250 billion in 2001, compared with an actual spend of $19 billion in 1997.
Information is a Chester-based specialist in BI, the delivery of management reporting and analysis solutions. QSP has acquired 100% of the company for an initial consideration of £1.0m to be satisfied by 117,925 QSP shares upon completion and a further consideration of up to £2.6m dependent on the achievement of service revenue and margin targets in each of the two years ending 31 December 2001.
Information is partnered with Cognos, Oracle and Informix and offers a complete BI solution including analysis and design, construction, implementation, training and application management. Its blue chip customer base includes Scottish Provident, The RAC and Johnson the Cleaners. Information has 12 employees, generating consulting and product revenues currently in excess of £1 million.
According to recent research from Gartner, the global market for BI solutions is forecast to exceed $8 billion by 2002, compared with an actual spend of just over $1 billion in 1997. Malachy Smith, Group Chief Executive of QSP, commented:
These acquisitions add important product and service elements to our existing range, fully support our focus of enabling e-Finance and therefore further extend QSP’s global market potential.
Both companies address high growth markets and bring new, predictable and profitable revenue streams to the Group which help further mitigate the customary seasonal risks in our traditional business. The Directors intend to market these new solutions to the Group’s existing client base which we believe holds significant value and potential. As a consequence, QSP will be better positioned in the future to withstand Industry wide downturns in demand such as those experienced in the run up to, and in the initial aftermath of, the Y2K lockdown.
In common with our global peers, we experienced slow trading conditions in the first quarter of 2000, though recent momentum had resulted in a solid pipeline in all areas of our business. Notwithstanding this, and given the early stage in the current year and the current conversion rates of prospects to date, the Directors expect a satisfactory outcome for the year ended 31 December 2000.
As confirmed in our 1999 results announcement, we continue to evaluate a number of other bolt-on acquisitions as well as pursuing organic growth opportunities. We expect further announcements will follow in due course.
