22nd Mar 2016 07:53
LONDON (Alliance News) - Software company Micro Focus International PLC on Tuesday said it has struck a deal to acquire US-based Spartacus Acquisition Holding Corp, the owner of Serena Software Inc, for USD540.0 million in cash.
Serena is an enterprise software based in California focused on application lifecycle management products. It has operations in 12 countries, with its main offices in the US and UK, and serves a range of typically highly regulated large companies, including banks, insurance companies and telecommunications providers.
For the year to the end of January 2015, Serena posted a USD30.3 million pretax profit on revenue of USD176.2 million.
FTSE 250-listed Micro Focus will back the deal through existing cash resources and financing facilities, plus a new GBP150.0 million share placing. The placing will be conducted through an accelerated bookbuild, run by Numis Securities Ltd as sole bookrunner.
"We have been tracking Serena for a number of years and are encouraged by the current management team's recent management of a mature infrastructure software company in a similar way to Micro Focus. We are delighted at the prospect of Serena becoming part of the Micro Focus product portfolio where we believe that we will be able to further enhance its operational performance," said Micro Focus Executive Chairman Ken Loosemore.
Micro Focus also said it has continued to trade at the upper end of its revenue guidance in the first nine months of its financial year to the end of April. It will publish its results for the year to April 30 on July 14.
The group said its SUSE platform has performed well, partially offsetting revenue declines in the rest of its product portfolio which will mean revenue for the year will be down by between 2% and 4% on a constant currency basis, in line with Micro Focus's guidance.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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