Wetherby’s Proactis agrees to £102m acquisition of US firm

Proactis, the Wetherby-based specialist spend management solution provider, has conditionally agreed to acquire a global provider of spend management solutions for £102.4m.

Following Proactis’ purchase of US-headquartered Perfect Commerce, the company will initiate an oversubscribed conditional placing to raise £70m at 165 pence per Placing Share.

Perfect Commerce develops and sells cloud-based, technology-led, spend management solutions for the public and private sector markets. The firm has approximately over 1.3 million users across more than 80 countries, 20 languages and 100 currencies.

The acquisition, which constitutes as a reverse takeover, forms part of Proactis’ growth strategy which is designed to deliver a business that is capable of addressing a global market demand for spend management solutions.

As well as increasing Proactis’ global footprint, the deal is also expected to save the company around £5m a year.

Hampton Wall, the president and chief executive officer of Perfect Commerce, has been appointed as chief executive officer of Proactis. Tim Sykes is resuming his role as the company’s CFO.

Completion of the acquisition awaits on the approval by the Shareholders at the General Meeting, which will take place on the morning of 31st July. The takeover is expected to be completed on or about 4th August.

Tim Sykes, Chief Financial Officer of PROACTIS, commented: “This is a highly complementary and transformational acquisition which we expect to be earnings enhancing in the financial year ending 31 July 2018.

“The Acquisition will accelerate PROACTIS’ growth and bring substantial global scale to the Group, positioning us to exploit the high growth areas of the spend management market and enabling us to provide our customers with an even broader product offering.

“In addition, it will build our scale in the US, UK and mainland Europe, with the Enlarged Group having a uniquely balanced and scaled commercial and operational capability across all of those territories. The combined solution set will enable us to target both larger and more complex customer contract opportunities, wherever that customer might be located.

“We are delighted that Hamp is joining the Board at this exciting time. Hamp brings with him considerable experience in the industry, as well as a specific skillset in acquisition integration, and he will be of great value to the Company as we continue to grow.”

Hamp Wall, president and chief executive officer of Perfect Commerce, added: “We are excited to be joining PROACTIS at a time of such rapid innovation in the industry. We have a highly complementary product set, customer base and geographic reach and we look forward to offering our customers an enhanced product offering.

“I was extremely encouraged by the appetite of investors and HSBC for this transaction and I look forward to delivering value for them in return.”

KPMG Deal Advisory worked on the deal and Chris Stott, KPMG partner said: “This transaction continues the strong trend of consolidation in the tech sector and in particular financial support services.”