SPI, the African distributor for utility software products and services to the open systems segment of the IT industry and the southern African reseller for Esker, a leader in document process automation solutions, today announced the latter's acquisition of CalvaEDI, the leading French company specialising in computer-based communications in the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) transport and logistics sector.
Since its creation in 1997, CalvaEDI has been one of the leading companies to popularise EDI technology in France. By choosing to build its development entirely on recurring revenue related to the use of its platform, CalvaEDI inaugurates a new economic model, very similar to that of cloud-based computing.
Similar to Esker, CalvaEDI was able to focus on customer needs rather than technical aspects. Over the years, the company has developed a suite of services specialised for the transportation and logistics market, and has since become the leader in this sector in France.
Based in Paris, CalvaEDI achieved EUR2.3m in sales revenue in 2014, up more than 5% over 2013. The acquisition represents immediate growth to Esker's financial performance, given the strong recurring revenue, sound cost structure and high profitability of CalvaEDI. Integration synergies will further strengthen the financial interest of the merger.
The acquisition of 100% of CalvaEDI's shares will be financed in part by Esker cash, the use (up to 20%) of shares acquired on the market and by bank support, including BPI France, the French government-owned investment bank. To demonstrate their confidence in the success of the CalvaEDI and Esker alliance, the selling shareholders have committed to a two-year lockup plan for the Esker shares they will receive as compensation for the deal.
For over 30 years, EDI has allowed businesses to automatically transmit business information (e.g., orders, invoices, shipping orders, etc.), significantly reducing costs, while increasing the reliability of the exchanges. Until now, for reasons related to implementation challenges, EDI has primarily benefited very large companies operating in industries with very high volumes and integration levels (e.g. retail, automotive and chemistry). The advent of the Internet, combined with legislative and regulatory changes on the exchange of invoices in the public and private sectors in Europe, makes EDI an essential component of businesses' document process automation strategy.
Esker believes that EDI will increasingly complement technologies typically implemented by customers in their automation projects. The company plans to open up the use of these technologies to smaller businesses and to companies in other industries, both through targeted acquisitions and agreements with technology partners.
Given its strong leadership position in its market, CalvaEDI will continue to operate under its own name as a separate entity from Esker. New services will gradually be jointly developed in order to accelerate CalvaEDI's growth and to offer Esker customers, particularly those who have automated the order-to- cash cycle, the benefit of EDI technology integration.
For further information, please contact Chris Anderson on telephone number +27 11 234 1560; fax +27 11 234 1387; e-mail chris@spi.co.za.
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