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Recruiter Empresaria (LON:EMR) has agreed a US$12.1mln deal to buy US-based Pharmaceutical Strategies.
The specialist recruitment firm, which focuses on the US healthcare market, is profitable and cash generating, and should be immediately earnings enhancing, Empresaria said.
Pharmaceutical Strategies made revenues of US$7.6mln with net fee income of around US$1.9mln and earnings [EBITDA] of US$600,000 in 2014.
Joost Kreulen, chief executive of Empresaria, said: “This increases our presence in the healthcare sector with entry to the high growth US market.
“It also further diversifies the Group's geographic spread and is in line with our temporary recruitment bias,” he added.
Empresaria supplies permanent and temporary staff in 18 countries but the move represents its first foray into the US market.
Speaking to Proactive last month, Spencer Wreford, Empresaria’s finance director, said the company was looking to move toward specialist, professional jobs.
“We have a deliberate strategy to move away from the low value part of the market and focus on better quality jobs where you tend to have stronger margins and better value and service to clients,” he said.
To fund the deal, the company intends to raise around £3.3mln through the placing of 4.4mln shares at 75p per share, a 12% discount to yesterday's close and, after the market closed, Empresaria revealed it had completed the oversubscribed placing.
Shares eased 5.2% to 81p today.