Bglobal acquires Utiligroup for up to £12.8 million, to raise £8 million

Smart metering and energy data company Bglobal (AIM: BGBL) has announced the acquisition of Utiligroup Limited, a provider of energy data management and process solutions to energy and utility sectors, for up to £12.8 million, which will be partially financed through a £6.5 million placing, which was also announced today.

Bglobal is also set to raise another £1.5 million through an open offer to shareholders. The share price of both the placing and the open offer is 38 pence per share, compared to the stock’s closing price yesterday of 34 pence.

The placing is now subject to shareholder approval.

Utiligroup has three principal wholly owned subsidiaries, including provider of energy data management and process solutions Utilisoft, supplier of software solutions in Australia and Singapore Utilisoft Australia and Utiliserve, which offers managed service and IT application outsourcing capabilities to utility companies.

Bglobal will make an initial payment of £5.3 million, consisting of £4.3 million in cash and £1 million in ordinary shares at a price of 43 pence per share and a performance consideration of £7.5 million with £4.125 million in cash and £3.375 million in shares, which will be payable dependent on the trading performance of Utiligroup in the year to 31 Match 2011.

The board expects the enlarged group to develop new data collection and management software platforms in feed-in tariff data management, Pay As You Go Business (PAYGB), Managed credit / pre-payment metering solutions and outsourced smart meter-to-bill IT and service solutions for UK energy suppliers.

“Utiligroup is one of the UK's leading energy data software specialists and together with Bglobal Metering we are creating the UK's premier energy data solutions business positioned to deliver the full end-to-end smart energy solutions that we believe our UK customers and markets all over the world will demand... we are confident the enlarged group has the expertise, experience, knowledge and reach to realise our vision of making energy count for our customers in the UK and further afield,” said Chief Executive of Bglobal Tony Barnes.

Bglobal has also updated investors on its performance in the second half of the year to 31 March 2010, saying it has installed 95,000 smart meters to date, with 40,000 of them installed during the financial year with over 5,000 meters installed in March alone. The increase in installation rates in the last quarter of the year has led to higher margins.

Shares in the company rallied nearly 8% on the update.