25th Jun 2015 07:05
LONDON (Alliance News) - Software company Netcall PLC on Thursday said payments technology company Eckoh PLC has made a cash and shares takeover offer for the company, coming as Eckoh posted its results for its 2015 financial year and said it has won a new contract with FTSE 100-listed outsourcer Capita PLC.
Netcall said Eckoh has made a bid for Netcall of 1.25 Eckoh shares plus 13 pence in cash for each Netcall share, implying a value of around 63.94 pence per Netcall share. The stock was up 13% at the open Thursday at 58.80p. Eckoh shares were up 3.1% at 42.00p.
Eckoh made the bid as it said it swung to profit in the financial year to the end of March on the back of a 22% rise in revenue. The company posted a pretax profit of GBP2.1 million, compared to a GBP1.4 million loss a year earlier, on a rise in revenue to GBP17.2 million from GBP14 million a year earlier.
The results prompted the company to recommend an 18% hike to its full-year dividend to 0.37p per share from 0.3125p a year earlier.
Eckoh said it has secured a record number of new clients in the UK over the year and won its five new customers in the US as it continued to expand it operation in the country.
In a further separate statement on Thursday, Eckoh also said it has secured a deal with Capita's Customer Management division to provide telephony services to a leading, unnamed UK transport organisation. It did not provide any financial details on the five-year deal, but said the new deal comes following a number of contract wins secured by its partnership with Capita.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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