TIDMAUK
RNS Number : 1486G
Aukett Swanke Group PLC
17 July 2023
17 July 2023
Aukett Swanke Group Plc
("Aukett Swanke", the "Company", or, together with its
subsidiaries, the "Group")
Acquisition of Anders+Kern U.K. Limited
("Anders+Kern" or "A+K")
Aukett Swanke (AIM: AUK), the group providing Smart Buildings,
Architectural and Design Services, is pleased to announce the
acquisition of Anders+Kern, a distributor of smart workplace
systems (the "Acquisition").
The Acquisition adds meaningful Smart Building revenues and
expertise to the Group.
Summary of the Transaction
The Company has entered into a share purchase agreement pursuant
to which it has acquired the entire issued share capital of A+K
from Easter Road Holdings Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of
SmartSpace Software plc (AIM:SMRT) ("SmartSpace"). The
consideration of GBP515,057 is payable in cash following
completion, which occurred on Friday 14 July 2023.
Shortly prior to the Acquisition, A+K completed the disposal of
a freehold property asset and settled various intragroup
transactions. The net assets acquired are estimated to be
approximately GBP250,000. The Group has received customary
warranties and indemnities from the vendor, guaranteed by its
parent, SmartSpace. The consideration is subject to a working
capital adjustment. This is expected to be minimal and is limited
to a further GBP45,000. Accordingly, the maximum total
consideration is GBP560,000.
For the year ended 31 January 2023 SmartSpace reported A+K
revenues of GBP2.09m and a trading loss before tax of GBP169k.
During that period it employed an average of 11 people. Earlier in
the current financial period it carried out a restructuring
including transfers to other businesses owned by SmartSpace. At the
point of acquisition there are seven A+K employees joining the
Group. The business is trading profitably with revenue expected to
exceed the prior year.
Acquisition Rationale
Smart Buildings bring tremendous benefits to their users, their
owners, and to the environment. There remain significant barriers
to their adoption, including changing the status quo. Architecture
firms are well placed to persuade their clients to implement Smart
Building methodologies, but most lack the capital and expertise to
make the necessary investment in hardware, software, and systems as
well as people. As the UK's only quoted architecture group, Aukett
Swanke is uniquely placed to be able to purchase established Smart
Buildings businesses and enable them to scale, taking advantage of
synergies that will be developed between the Group's
businesses.
As set out in the Company's recent interim results, the Group
has been evaluating a number of acquisition opportunities to
develop its expertise in the integration and operation of Smart
Buildings, and A+K is the first of these to progress to completion.
A+K's revenues are derived from, inter alia, the provision of
hardware, software, and installation services for room and desk
booking systems, and the provision of IoT sensors to monitor
environmental and occupancy data. The data created can be analysed
using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to get meaningful actionable
insights to improve occupier experience within the built
environment.
Barrie Meehan, formerly A+K's Technical Director, and Alison
Taylor, formerly A+K's Operations Manager, will lead the acquired
business as Managing Director and Operations Director of A+K
respectively.
A+K retains its status as a distributor of SpaceConnect,
SmartSpace's workspace optimisation SaaS product, and is actively
pursuing a number of opportunities with SmartSpace. However,
outside of a pure software business, backed by the systems and
resources of a larger group, our expectation is that A+K can grow
more rapidly. There are expected to be further synergistic benefits
for A+K as the Group implements its growth strategy.
Clive Carver, Chairman of Aukett Swanke, commented :
"We are pleased to be completing on a second acquisition to
accelerate our Smart Buildings strategy following the Torpedo
Factory (TFG) acquisition in March. The A+K business has been known
to TFG for some time, and the Board believes that TFG's systems and
resources will enable A+K to scale faster. We congratulate Barrie
and Alison on their promotions and welcome the A+K team to the
Group. "
Contacts
Aukett Swanke Group Plc +44 (0) 20 7843 3000
Clive Carver, Chairman
Nick Clark, Chief Executive
Strand Hanson Limited, Financial and Nominated Adviser +44 (0)
20 7409 3494
Richard Johnson, James Bellman
Zeus Capital Limited, Broker +44 (0) 20 3829 5000
Simon Johnson, Louisa Waddell
Investor/Media + 44 (0) 7979 604 687
Chris Steele
About Aukett Swanke Group plc
Aukett Swanke Group has a strong foundation in architectural
services and is on a transformative journey to become a
London-listed provider of Smart Buildings and related services. ASG
are uniquely positioned to ensure the technical systems that run
modern premises are designed as an integral part of the structure,
from the outset.
For more information go to https://www.aukettswankeplc.com
About SmartSpace Software PLC
SmartSpace Software plc is a fast growing SaaS-based technology
business, designing and building smart software solutions. The
Company's software solutions help transform employee engagement
with modules which include visitor management, desk management,
meeting room management and analytics.
For more information go to https://www.smartspaceplc.com
The information contained within this announcement is deemed by
the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under
the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014 as it forms part of
United Kingdom domestic law by virtue of the European Union
(Withdrawal) Act 2018, as amended by virtue of the Market Abuse
(Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019.
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END
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 17, 2023 02:00 ET (06:00 GMT)
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