18th Nov 2015 08:39
LONDON (Alliance News) - Eckoh PLC, a secure payments company, on Wednesday revealed a USD7.6 million acquisition to continue its expansion into the US, where it reported gathering sales momentum with four new contracts secured since June.
The acquisition of US-based Product Support Solutions Inc came as Eckoh reported that pretax profit fell to GBP74,000 in the half to September 30 from GBP109,000 in the corresponding period the prior year. Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose to GBP2.0 million from GBP1.6 million.
Taking into account that PSS has USD2.0 million of cash on its balance sheet, Eckoh is paying USD5.6 million net for the company, which specialises in managing contact centre and customer experience technology.
Eckoh funded USD5.6 million of the payment with a new GBP5.0 million banking facility, with the remaining money being used to repay a previous GBP2.4 million loan. New Eckoh shares priced at 43.18 pence each will pay the remaining USD2.0 million due for PSS. Eckoh has issued 1.4 million shares and will another 1.5 million shares on the first anniversary of the deal.
Shares in Eckoh were up 3.3% at 47.90 pence on Wednesday morning.
PSS, which aims to help its clients improve the efficiency of their contact centres, made a USD1.2 million pretax profit on revenue of USD17.4 million in 2014. The deal is expected to be immediately earnings enhancing, Eckoh said.
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
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