logo-loader

BATM Advanced Communications exercises option to sell NGSoft for US$33mln

Published: 09:04 01 Mar 2021 GMT

BATM Advanced Communications Ltd - BATM Advanced Communications exercises option to sell NGSoft for US$33mln

BATM Advanced Communications Limited (LON:BVC) announced it exercised the option to sell its subsidiary NGSoft, a software provider, for US$33mln (£23mln).

The buyer is Aztek Technologies, a provider of ICT cloud services in Israel and a portfolio company of private equity investor SKY Fund, which entered an option agreement concerning NGSoft in mid-January.

WATCH: BATM Advanced Communications mark 'transformational year' with significant delivery

As part of the share purchase agreement, BATM will receive US$29mln in cash, including a US$4mln loan repayment from NGSoft and a US$640,000 dividend payment which will be received prior to completion.

The remainder will be received on completion, which is subject to the receipt of approval from the Israel Competition Authority and expected to occur by the end of March.

The provider of real-time technologies for networking solutions and medical laboratory systems said certain employees of NGSoft will receive the balance of US$3mln through cash out of their employee options and rights.

In 2020, NGSoft generated a profit before tax of US$2.4mln and as at December 2020 had gross assets of US$22.5mln.

BATM said it intends to invest the proceeds of the sale to strengthen its innovation and commercialisation engine organically and through acquisition to boost core activities, especially in network function virtualisation and molecular diagnostics.

The board said it believes these areas offer transformational growth opportunities in the short- to medium-term.

In addition, the disposal of NGSoft, combined with the increased contribution to group revenue from molecular diagnostics and network function virtualisation, will support the anticipated improvement in gross margin for 2021.

"We are pleased to be, once again, generating value from the sale of a part of our portfolio that is non-core to our future,” said BATM chief executive Zvi Marom in a release.

“We will be able to use the proceeds from this transaction to accelerate the areas of our business that we believe will provide transformational growth opportunities. This follows an extremely successful 2020, with significant strategic progress in both the Bio-Medical and Networking & Cyber division, and further strengthens our foundations.”

Shares rose 3% to 104p early on Monday.

Caledonia Mining tackles 2023 challenges with optimism for 2024 as it...

Caledonia Mining Corporation PLC (AIM:CMCL, NYSE-A:CMCL) chief executive Mark Learmonth tells Proactive's Stephen Gunnion the company faced a challenging 2023, primarily due to poor production in the first half of the year at its core asset, the Blanket Mine in Zimbabwe, and an underperformance...

1 hour, 42 minutes ago