Shares in electronic signature group Nitro went into a trading halt Wednesday morning to allow the company to raise $140 million to finance the purchase of Belgian group Connective.
The $140 million will be raised via a fully underwritten capital raising made up of an $80 million institutional placement and a one for 11.4 $60 million accelerated non-renounceable entitlement offer at a price of $3.43.
That’s a near 11% discount to Tuesday’s close of $3.84.
In a statement Wednesday, Nitro said the deal, (which values Connective an enterprise value of 70 million euros), will cement its position as a global eSign and document productivity SaaS platform via Connective’s customer base in France and 11 other European countries.
In the statement Nitro said Connective is forecast to achieve Annual Recurring Revenue (‘ARR’) of around $US6.1 million by the end of this year.
Nitro also reaffirmed its updated 2021-22 guidance (ex-acquisition) in relation to ARR, revenue and operating EBITDA (loss) provided late last month on October 27.
“Connective’s business focuses on serving the needs of enterprise and government customers that require high levels of trust, security and regulatory compliance, while also offering expansive electronic identity (‘eID’) support and a powerful document workflow automation solution,” said Nitro.
Connnective was founded in 2014 and Nitro co-founder and CEO,Sam Chandler described the deal as “a milestone moment in Nitro’s growth story.”
“With the acquisition of Connective, Nitro is well placed to become the third global player in the fast-growing enterprise eSign market. Connective adds highly secure, enterprise-grade eSigning, eID and workflow capabilities to Nitro’s existing eSign solutions at a time where increased trust, security, and regulatory compliance are vital to business success.
“With data security at a premium, the future of eSigning is built around high- trust eID-driven solutions, and this acquisition positions Nitro to become a global leader.
“Connective’s Smart Document product will further bolster Nitro’s platform, making document workflow automation easy, powerful and available to all. There are a multitude of opportunities to add Connective’s market-leading products to Nitro’s platform and drive additional demand through our global sales network and 12,000+ business customers,” he said.
