Regent Evolution advised Tern Capital regarding the add-on acquisition of Thomson Screening Solutions for its portfolio company CCube Solutions.
Healthcare electronic document management system (EDMS) provider CCube Solutions has acquired Thomson Screening Solutions, supplier of child health clinical applications, used by over 40 NHS, healthcare and education providers.
Thomson Screening is the leading provider of software that enables non-clinicians to deliver vision and hearing screening in schools and workplaces. The Thomson Screening Solutions platform is designed to support the efficient delivery of vision and hearing screening, along with supporting health needs, electronic consent, mass immunisation management, and risk assessments.
Karthik Dasari, Founder of Tern Capital, commented: “We are excited to be supporting TSS on their growth journey. Their market-leading services and software have already delivered significant benefits to millions of children. At Tern, we work very closely with businesses, providing them with investment and a structured value-creation plan covering sales effectiveness, operational excellence, talent growth and finance disciplines. We look forward to supporting the combined TSS and CCube businesses on its growth journey.”
Alistair Eaton, CEO of CCube commented: “We are thrilled to welcome TSS into the CCube family. This acquisition aligns perfectly with our mission to provide innovative Software-as-a-Service solutions that enhance the quality of care and operational efficiency for healthcare providers. The acquisition will bring significant benefits to both companies’ stakeholders, including enhanced research and development capabilities, expanded market reach, and a stronger overall service capability. The combined expertise of both companies will drive further innovation and growth in the healthcare technology sector.”
Michael Ter-Berg CEO of Thomson Screening commented: “Having led TSS since 2012, I am excited about the next stage of our journey with CCube and Tern. We have chosen Tern as our investment partner because of their deep operational experience and hands-on philosophy. The team at Tern shares our values and commitment to excellence. The combined resources of both companies will significantly enhance TSS’ capabilities as our clients seek digital solutions to improve Child Health and Education outcomes.”
Dolf Campman, Partner at Regent Evolution commented: “It was a pleasure working with Karthik Dasari and his colleagues to bring this acquisition to a successful conclusion. Having known key people in both organisations for some time gave us an early insight into the potential benefits of bringing them together. We are delighted to have completed yet another transaction in the healthcare software industry which has become an important sector for Regent Evolution’s Corporate Finance business.”
Apiary Capital
Apiary Capital has invested in e-learning software specialist XVR Simulation.
XVR Simulation is the global leader in virtual reality e-learning for the emergency services sectors. XVR’s suite of products, which includes a crisis scenario simulation platform, e-learning content library, learning management system and a workforce competency management platform, is used by fire, police and healthcare organisations in more than 50 countries.
The combined entity has over 450 fire, police and healthcare sector customers. The suite of products are used by leading public sector institutions to train over 300,000 emergency services and health care staff each year.
Jeniv Shah, Partner at Apiary Capital commented “We engaged Regent Assay because it became clear from our conversations that they had good knowledge of many of the same segments of the TMT industries that we found interesting. The team led by Dolf Campman brought us a number of interesting opportunities, and in the case of XVR Simulation this resulted in the completion of an attractive acquisition. Their contribution to the execution of the transaction was also very helpful. We look forward to exploring further opportunities with the Regent Assay team.”
Supadü
Supadü Ltd, based in the UK, is the leading provider of website and e-commerce solutions for publishers. It has more than 250 global customers, primarily in Europe and North America, including 6 of the 8 Ivy League universities and 4 out of the top 5 American trade publishers. With the Supafolio metadata management platform at its core, Supadü uses book data to build beautiful websites with enhanced title visibility and advanced search functions.
Media Do is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and has a market capitalisation of JPY 40.2 billion (£257m). The company posted record revenues for its 3rd quarter ended 30 November 2021 of JPY 78.7 billion (£504m), which represents a year-on-year increase of 27.0%. Media Do's current financial year ending 28 February 2022 is shaping up to be a year of rapid progress in its efforts to promote digital transformation.
“We selected Regent Assay because of their in-depth knowledge of the media industry and the B2B software sector. Dolf Campman and his colleagues approached potential strategic partners on a global basis. We had considerable interest from international parties which had an excellent fit with our business. In the end, we selected the Japanese group Media Do as our preferred partner and we look forward to accelerating the company’s growth as part of the Media Do group.”
Folan
Regent Assay is pleased to announce that it has acted as the exclusive financial advisor to FOLAN on its acquisition of Mainframe Communications. The acquisition of manufacturer Mainframe Communications sees the company enter the UK market through a well-known player already firmly established in the rapidly expanding fibre sector. Created in 1988 and owned until now by its founders, brothers Ian and Bill Carter, the company is known for its expertise in the design, assembly and distribution of passive optical equipment, solutions and connectivity for FTTx, industry, data centers and optical LAN. With certification from the main national operators, its solutions are acclaimed for their quality and design.
FOLAN and Mainframe Communications have much in common, their synergies extending from expanding the range of products and solutions they offer their respective clients to the financial and business capacity to create a more capillary network in the United Kingdom market. Their collaboration will thus provide a greater capacity to meet the needs of UK clients as well as the means to support them in the swift and innovative deployment of FTTx and Data networks throughout the UK.
By becoming the UK subsidiary of FOLAN, Mainframe Communications is set to accelerate its development and rapidly strengthen its teams. The acquisition will lead to an acceleration of the Group’s international operations, their contribution eventually increasing to 40% of its income, compared with 15% at present.
“By gaining a foothold in the UK through Mainframe Communications, which is well-known and fully embedded in the country, we are continuing our project to expand both the Group and FOLAN, strengthening the capacity of this national player and enabling it to seize the opportunities provided by the simmering fiber market in the UK,” comments Ludovic Robert, President and CEO of the parent company.
“We are very pleased with the Mainframe acquisition. Regent Assay demonstrated a clear understanding of our market and provided a comprehensive qualified list of all of the relevant participants in the UK fibre optic market. They provided an excellent, professional service to help us choose and acquire our preferred UK partner”
Bertrand Sarrere – Group CFO
This transaction demonstrates Regent Assay’s expertise and track record in the telecommunications and technology sectors.
The Regent Assay team comprised: James Calvert, Partner and Chris Taylor, Partner.
Regent Assay has over 30 years experience in advising companies across all sectors including Technology, Healthcare and Support Services, providing M&A services ranging from company sales and divestments, acquisitions, capital financing, advisory services and valuations.
Whether you are seeking to acquire a company, divest a division or sell your business, Regent Assay’s industry knowledge, experience and global reach will ensure that you achieve the best result.
Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Inc
Allscripts (NASDAQ: MDRX) announced the acquisition of privately-held Oasis Medical Solutions Limited, a London-based Patient Administration System (PAS) and health informatics solution provider. The Oasis™ PAS system, developed over 18 years in partnership with numerous NHS trusts, provides flexible, efficient and scalable administrative workflow across all venues of care. By combining the Oasis PAS technology with the Allscripts Sunrise clinical platform, Allscripts will offer a highly competitive, single-source offering for an innovative and advanced electronic patient record solution throughout the United Kingdom.
The Oasis PAS is used extensively across the NHS in more than a dozen NHS trusts and hospitals. Clients include East Sussex Healthcare, Royal Surrey County Hospital Trust, Medway NHS Foundation Trust and Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, among others. Oasis hospital clients average over 500 beds per facility, and the company has distinguished itself for its exclusive focus on PAS solutions for the NHS trusts that are innovative, effective, affordable and flexible.
Allscripts has a proven track record of success for clinical solutions, specifically the Allscripts Sunrise clinical electronic health record for inpatient and outpatient care management. Today, Sunrise is live at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust as well as at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust. In addition, Allscripts recently announced the opening of its European headquarters in Manchester, UK, committing additional resources to this important healthcare market.
By combining a leading PAS offering with its advanced clinical solution, Allscripts will provide the UK NHS trusts with the clear long-term advantages of integrated workflow between PAS and clinical solutions and the benefit of one business partner that provides a single-source electronic patient record to improve the efficiency and quality of healthcare delivery.
“The United Kingdom is an important growth market for Allscripts core clinical and PAS solutions,” said Richard Berner, President, Allscripts International. “A strong clinical offering combined with a highly regarded PAS provides a complete and proven solution to meet the critical long-term needs of the NHS Trusts. By acquiring Oasis, we believe we have optimised our position in the market and expect to drive significant value from this combination for our clients.”
PA Group
PA Group, the parent company of Press Association, has acquired an 80 per cent stake of content marketing company Sticky Content.
The purchase forms part of PA Group’s strategy to become a top provider of multi-platform content solutions across a range of sectors.
Commenting on the news, Clive Marshall, PA Group's chief executive, said: "This is the second significant investment we have made since we sold our stake in Canada Newswire at the end of 2012.
"Last month we acquired mminternational (Europe) – a leading European weather company – to exploit the significant opportunities for growth in our MeteoGroup weather business and further strengthen its position as one of the world's leading commercial weather organisations.
"The acquisition of Sticky Content is part of our drive to broaden the market for the Press Association's news and information services and expand the range of products and services that complement our traditional news feed business."
PA Group revealed its Content For Marketing businesses will now operate under the Sticky Content brand to provide clients with a complete end-to-end content marketing solution.
OLM Group
Regent Assay advised the owner and managers of Esprit on its successful sale to OLM Group.
Esprit, a leading provider of multi-agency information sharing solutions to Local Authorities and the NHS, has now joined with the UK’s largest independent supplier of software solutions for Children’s and Adult’s services. This acquisition has advanced the combined entities exposure in the areas of SEN and CAF and further strengthened its positioned within Local Government.
Lumison
Lumison, the UK provider of connectivity, hosting and managed IT services, that was acquired by Bridgepoint Development Capital in October 2010, has acquired, Blue Square Data, a data centre based provider of colocation services.
Blue Square Data, which has been acquired in a transaction with an initial consideration of £22 million, operates data centres in Maidenhead and Milton Keynes, providing a high quality environment in which customers can locate their servers in facilities with highly resilient power, cooling and network connectivity and high levels of security. It also provides customers with well trained on-site engineers to deal with fault diagnosis, software and hardware issue resolution and server installation and racking, as well as the ability to carry out technical project work.
Lumison provides similar data centre services from high quality facilities in Edinburgh and Croydon, as well as a range of IT and network managed services.
Whilst the legal nature of the transaction is that Lumison Group, supported by Bridgepoint Development Capital (BDC), has acquired Blue Square Data Group, operationally it is a merger. The businesses will be integrating data centre operations, network infrastructure and service delivery into a single coherent operation. The operational management will remain in place, and Matthew Munson, Blue Square Data's CTO, will become the CTO of the combined group.
Lumison executive chairman Mark Howling said: "The acquisition of Blue Square Data will more than treble the rack capacity we can now offer our customers and extends our catchment area of potential customers across the UK. Importantly, it means that our aim of creating a fully integrated, high quality, medium-sized services provider that can provide the full range of IT and network services that medium sized organisations need, has taken an important step forward."
Matthew Munson commented that: "The combined business will have data centres spanning from Croydon in the south, through Maidenhead and Milton Keynes to Edinburgh in the north. For many organisations it is important that they are within close proximity to the data centre and this development helps us to support their expansion plans, as well as enabling us to offer them a broader range of services from all locations. The culture of our two organisations is very similar and this was an important factor in deciding to join forces with Lumison, and as such I am very excited about what the future holds for the new enlarged group."
Bridgepoint Development Capital estimates that the total UK data centre hosting market is worth c.£15 billion and is growing at more than 10% per annum, driven by growth in data volumes and the trend towards companies outsourcing hosting requirements to third parties as the scale and complexity of these activities exceeds their internal IT capabilities.
According to Alan Payne, partner of Bridgepoint Development Capital, the original aim in acquiring Lumison, was for it to become the platform for further growth to which, through selective acquisition and organic growth, a broader and deeper range of services could be added.
"Data centres are scarce assets and the acquisition of Blue Square Data not only allows Lumison to tap further into a large and rapidly growing market but also fits perfectly into our overall 'buy and build' strategy for its broader expansion within the important SME IT services market." He said.
Additional equity funding for the transaction was provided by Bridgepoint Development Capital and Lumison's incumbent bank HSBC extended existing facilities to provide further senior debt. Advisers involved in this transaction included: for Lumison - Travers Smith (legal), Deloitte (accounting due diligence), CIL (commercial due diligence), Regent (corporate finance); for Blue Square Data management - Hogan Lovells (legal).
Patni
We advised Patni Computer Systems Ltd. (NYSE: PTI), a leading global IT services provider on its acquisition of Europe-based Logan-Orviss International (LOI), a leading independent specialist telecommunications consulting services company. The consideration includes an upfront cash payment on completion of the transaction as well as performance-linked incentive payments on achieving financial targets over a three year period. LOI ended a profitable year with revenues of Euro 11.8 Million in 2006. The acquisition strengthens Patni’s capability in communications and media practice providing operators thought leadership and operational transformation consulting for mission critical IT initiatives.
Logan-Orviss International will become Patni’s Telecommunications Consulting & Advisory practice, and will be led by Brendan Logan and Colin Orviss, the firm’s co-founders. Commenting on the acquisition, Neeraj Gupta, Executive Vice President, Patni said, “The LOI acquisition underscores our commitment to global telecommunications and media customers. With this, Patni adds further depth to our pool of telecoms specialists enabling us to provide the best of world-class consulting and global delivery.”
Brendan Logan and Colin Orviss, Co-Founders, Logan-Orviss International, said, “The next generation communications and media service companies will be very different than today. The team of specialists at LOI along with Patni can enable their rapid transformation to developing new revenue streams, next generation architectures and the best customer experience.”
“This is the age of multi-media content and IPTV,” remarked Keith Willetts, Chairman and CEO of the TM Forum. “Communications providers do not always have the expertise in house to transform their business to address new opportunities or the experience with new information systems architectures and implementation approaches to facilitate a rapid change. The combination of Logan Orviss and Patni skills highlights the growing industry trend of mergers to better serve this important and growing market.”
“This strategic acquisition is designed to offer holistic, multi-level business transformation services to media and communications companies,” said Camille Mendler, European research Vice President at Yankee Group.
“Patni’s IT services portfolio coupled with LOI’s deep industry and consulting know-how are a strong combination.”
Real Time Engineering
On Friday 17th November, SWORD acquired Real Time Engineering Limited, a leading UK provider of business consultancy led solutions underpinned by leading edge products Real Time is headquartered in Glasgow (Scotland) and employs 140 staff throughout its 4 UK locations: Glasgow, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and London, as well as an office in Qatar supporting oil and gas operations in the region Real Time has a current revenue of €15 M Real Time provides solutions to the niche markets of government, oil and gas, energy, transport and telecoms.
We advised Real Time Engineering on the transaction.