Marlowe buying Riskwize for £25m, raising £50m in placing
By Josh White
Date: Wednesday 20 Oct 2021
(Sharecast News) - Business and regulatory compliance software and service provider Marlowe has entered into a binding agreement to acquire Riskwize and its wholly-owned subsidiary EssentialSkillz, it announced on Wednesday, for £25m.
The AIM-traded firm said the acquisition would increase its run rate revenues and adjusted EBITDA to £335m and £60m, respectively, with an underlying divisional EBITDA margin of about 19%.
Software annual recurring revenues would be increased by the acquisition to around £35m, achieving the company's medium-term digital target of 10% of group revenues being generated from software-as-a-service (SaaS).
The board said it was confident of achieving its stated target of £100m run rate adjusted EBITDA by the end of the 2024 financial year, ahead of the original target set out in February of this year.
Marlowe announced a proposed placing to raise £50m to fund the acquisition, as well as further near-term accretive bolt-on acquisitions.
The placing was being conducted through an accelerated book build process, which opened immediately after its announcement on Wednesday morning.
"This acquisition of EssentialSkillz is the next step in our strategy to become the compliance software market leader," said chief executive officer Alex Dacre.
"EssentialSkillz is a leading compliance SaaS and eLearning business of scale and its merger with our new WorkNest platform further strengthens our one-stop-shop regulatory compliance offering for our clients.
"The proposed fundraise will also provide Marlowe with additional funding for near-term accretive bolt-on mergers and acquisitions, in line with our strategy to deepen and broaden our activities to address more and more of our customers' safety and regulatory compliance needs."
At 1114 BST, shares in Marlowe were up 1.43% at 920p.
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