LINK Mobility Group ASA (“LINK”), one of Europe’s leading and fastest growing providers of B2C mobile messaging and mobile services, has entered into a definitive agreement for the acquisition of French mobile messaging company Netmessage SARL (“Netmessage”).
Netmessage was established in 2006, and is located in Paris, France. Netmessage has a strong position in the French market and is one of the leading mobile messaging and marketing providers in France and has launched many new services within this space over previous years.
“I am glad to announce that we have taken our first step into the French market through the acquisition of Netmessage. This is a big European market experiencing strong growth and demand for advanced mobile messaging and solutions services. Netmessage has a strong customer base of more than 700 enterprise customers in France, and we see a good potential to grow the customer base in France through increased penetration of our existing and new services. LINK has now grown its customer base in Europe through organic growth and acquisitions over the last twelve months from 6,000 to more than 16,000 customers.” says Arild E. Hustad, CEO of LINK.
Matthieu Fitoussi says: “I am very proud that Netmessage joins a group like Link Mobility Group that will provide more solutions to our clients and enable the company to pursue its growth.”
The agreed enterprise value of the transaction is EUR 9.9 million, on a cash-free and debt-free basis and assuming a normalised level of working capital. The enterprise value is based on a normalised EBITDA of EUR 1.65 million multiplied by a factor of 6.
The purchase price under the transaction will, subject to customary adjustments, be settled as follows:
– 70 percent of the purchase price in cash upon closing
– 15 percent of the purchase price as sellers’ credit to be paid in two equal instalments 6 and 12 months after closing. Interest of 4.75 percent per annum is to be paid in quarterly arrears
– 15 percent of the purchase price to be held in escrow and released in two equal instalments 6 and 12 months after closing.
