Goldenhill Technology Advisors today announced that it acted as M&A advisor to Brady plc (“Brady”) in its conditional acquisition of Viz Risk Management Services AS (“Viz”), a privately-owned company based in Bergen, Norway which is a leading software provider for the Energy Trading and Risk Management markets (ETRM), primarily electricity, gas, coal and emission certificates, for an aggregate consideration of Kr 92.5 million (approximately £9.6 million) in cash. The deal is anticipated to complete in December this year.
The Acquisition will complement Brady’s existing business and is in line with the Company’s stated strategy of enhancing anticipated organic growth with the acquisition of suitable companies to strengthen the Company’s product and customer base. Norway-based Viz, founded in 1992, has an established client base throughout Europe, with long-term clients, including major energy producers and traders. Viz’s market- leading Elviz ETRM will be Brady’s lead product to the energy sector and provides trading and risk management solutions for electricity, gas, coal and emissions. Viz‘s product range will be combined with Brady’s existing offerings as part of the company’s “single source – single view” strategy to provide comprehensive solution sets for specialist markets. Brady will now be able to offer its clients full cross-commodity coverage, with integrated solutions for the entire lifecycle of commodities, including metals, softs and energy products from capture, through processing, inventory, invoicing and ultimately reporting P&L on the trades.
Brady anticipates enhancing the Viz business with a stronger commercial and sales focus, as has been successfully demonstrated following the recent two acquisitions, of Commodities Software (UK) Limited in January 2009 and Viveo Switzerland SA in March 2010, both of which have significantly grown and are performing ahead of initial plans. The Viz Group operates under a recurring revenue model with more than 80% of its anticipated annual revenues going forward being forecasted as recurring in nature. This, combined with Brady’s traditional license model, is anticipated to increase the enlarged Brady’s recurring revenues to more than 50% of its annual revenues going forward. Brady believes that there is a strong opportunity to become a leading consolidator of commodity software companies and that the acquisition of Viz will be a key step in this process and at the same time increases Brady’s critical mass and scale.
The conditional acquisition of Viz by Brady is the result of a thorough research, identification, analysis and negotiation process in which Goldenhill assisted and advised Brady from beginning to end. Commenting on the contribution of Goldenhill to this transaction, Gavin Lavelle stated: “we continue to work very closely with Goldenhill to assist us in all aspects of the M&A process including this transaction. Their knowledge of the FinTech sector, presence on both sides of the Atlantic and experience in the M&A process has been of real value to us. Goldenhill’s commitment and perseverance in working with us has never wavered and we look forward to continuing our working relationship with them.”
About Brady plc
Brady plc (BRY.L) is a leading global provider of trading and risk management software to the worldwide commodity markets. Brady combines fully integrated and complete solutions supporting the entire commodity trading operation, from capture of financial and physical trading, through risk management, handling of physical operations, back office financials and treasury settlement, for refined and unrefined metals, softs and energy.
Brady has 25 years’ expertise in the commodity markets with over 100 customers worldwide, including some of the largest financial institutions, producers and mining corporations which depend on Brady’s software solutions to deliver vital business transactions across their global operations. Brady clients include many of the world’s largest miners, refiners and producers, trading companies, tier one banks and a large number of London Metal Exchange (LME) Category 1 and 2 clearing members. For further information visit: www.bradyplc.com
About Viz Risk Management
Viz Risk Management is a leading provider of real-time trading and risk management solutions to the international energy markets. European energy markets acknowledge Elviz ETRM as offering the most advanced product set available for real-time trading, pricing, analysis and risk management in their market sector.
With almost 20 years of expertise in the energy markets, Elviz ETRM is the solution of choice for more than 50 customers in Europe trading electricity, gas, coal, emissions and money markets. Viz clients include significant utility providers and oil companies in Europe as well as investment banks and portfolio managers.
Viz continues to set the market standard for innovation, having developed industry-leading techniques which allow consistent monitoring and measurement of risk in energy trading operations. Based on modern financial theory, Elviz ETRM software provides an integrated front- to back-office trading suite. For more information visit: www.viz.no