Atlantic Bridge et al. exit Acision to Comverse

JosУЉ Rojo
10 August 2015

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Atlantic Bridge Capital, Access Industries and International Investment and Underwriting (IIU) have sold UK-based mobile service Acision to US listed corporate Comverse after more than eight years as shareholders.

Comverse financed the acquisition with $136m in cash, up to $35m in earnout payments and 3.14 million of its common shares. According to press reports, all three sources represent a purchase price for Acision exceeding the $245m mark.

Acision will also retain its existing senior debt package, totalling $156m and expected to mature in 2018. The company, which was recently awarded a B2 rating by Moody's, was found by the agency to be leveraged at 3.1x EBITDA in the 12 months to September 2014.

The transaction will see Comverse and Acision merging operations into a business platform offering cloud multi-VAS, IP messaging and RCS, two-factor authentication and other technologies to more than 350 clients within the communication service providing industry worldwide.

The resulting group, for which a rebranding is expected later in the year, is also targeting expansion in the monetisation services and enterprise mobility sectors.

Previous funding
Atlantic Bridge's sell-off of Acision comes more than eight years after the technology specialist acquired a 50% stake in the business, supporting its MBO alongside US industrial holding Access Industries in March 2007.

According to unquote" data, the remaining 50% was secured by IIU, a Dublin-headquartered private equity firm set up by Irish financier Dermot Desmond.

The company, valued at around the £265m mark at the time, was a business unit within the parent and IT consultancy group Logica. Following its spin-off, it was rebranded from Logica CMG Telecom Products to Acision.

Company
A former division within IT group Logica, which was founded in 1969, Acision rebranded after being acquired by Atlantic Bridge in March 2007. The business develops mobile messaging and engagement technologies to communication service providers.

According to its latest estimates, its client base includes 300 names worldwide and represents 34% of the global messaging market, with 2 trillion messages being transferred on a yearly basis. Headquartered in Reading, the company operates additional offices in more than 25 countries across all continents.

According to Moody's, Acision has witnessed a 31% decline in turnover since 2010 as sales went from $316m between September 2010 and September 2011 to $219m in the same period between 2013 and 2014. Meanwhile, EBITDA has increased to $54m.

People
Larry Quinn is venture partner at Atlantic Bridge and chairperson at Acision. Philippe Tartavull is Comverse's current CEO.