Avisen, the AIM-listed business intelligence and performance management company, has acquired 100% of Quadrum Consulting, a South African IBM Cognos business partner company which specialises in the IBM Cognos TM1 product.
The acquisition has been settled for the UK equivalent of R2.6 million. This is the second IBM Cognos-centric acquisition this year, after it acquired UK-based InfoCube for around R7 million.
Late last year local Microsoft-centric business intelligence company Harvey Jones merged with Avisen. The group also acquired UK-based Wexner Global in February and has further acquisitions in prospect. "We acquired Quadrum as part of our strategy to focus on the TM1 offering, which is gaining rapidly in acceptance in the South African market now that 64-bit computing platforms are more readily available," says Keith Jones, regional director of Avisen South Africa and a main board director of Avisen.
"This is part of our strategy to fulfil UK and European business opportunities from South Africa. With our favourable exchange rate, work ethic, world-class skills, and the same time zone as the UK and Europe, we know we can secure a major share of these markets and grow Quadrum's business by a multiple in a year."
Quadrum is an experienced and active BI campaigner, adds Jones, with a strong financial and BI background and extensive TM1 experience. Its clients include Kraft, Premier Foods, Strate, Standard Bank and Romania's A&D Pharma. Jones says Avisen management has identified a number of clear opportunities for Quadrum in the far larger UK market. "This was a principal reason we chose to join Avisen," says Steven Joffe, MD of Quadrum. "As a listed, far larger corporation, it gives us access to international opportunities we could just not have had otherwise."
TM1, which IBM Cognos owns after its acquisition of Applix, is the market's leading "in-memory" BI offering, giving users high performance on extremely large data sets. Quadrum reported profit of R1.27 million on revenue of R4.05 million for the 2008 financial year. The company has been engaged in the provision of services around the domains of business-centric business intelligence, planning, forecasting and activity-based costing and financial consolidation solutions. "We are now positioned as a leading IBM Cognos reseller and consultancy in the UK and in South Africa," adds Jones. The acquisition has been funded through the issue of an additional 1 379 310 ordinary shares. Avisen is trading at 15p after an issue price in November 2008 of 5p and now has a market capitalisation equivalent to R275 million.
Share
Editorial contacts