Business

TripleArc is on the verge of being sold to Office2office (O2O), a business supplies firm, in a deal which values the print management firm at £12.4m.

Offer documents released this morning revealed the identity of the bidder after TripleArc, the parent company of AccessPlus, was forced to admit that it had been approached over a sale when its share price jumped yesterday morning.

The proposed offer is a cash offer of 6p per share made by Olive 1, a subsidiary of O2O. TripleArc shares had been trading at around 2.5p until yesterday, when rumours of the approach pushed their value up to 4.5p at the close of trading.

Under the deal, O2O would also take on TripleArc's net debt, which was stated as £13.6m in 2007 full-year accounts, that were also published this morning. O2O shareholders still have to approve the deal.

TripleArc chief executive Jason Cromack said that the deal would provide "certainty and value" for shareholders as well as "excellent opportunities" for the firm's management and employees.

He added the deal would "provide TripleArc with a wider opportunity to take on larger new business opportunities from a position of financial strength that previously eluded us due to our relatively high levels of debt".

O2O chief executive Simon Moate described TripleArc as a "leading player in the print management and business process outsourcing sectors" with a "strong and sustainable" business model.

"However, its ability to capitalise on growth opportunities has been hampered by historical debt issues. These issues will immediately be alleviated on acquisition by O2O and we are confident that TripleArc will considerably accelerate our growth in the business services arena," he added.

Europa Partners, Wyvern Partners, Panmure Gordon and Altium have acted as advisors on the deal, which was announced as TripleArc published its full-year results for 2007.

Turnover rose 3% year-on-year to £45.1m, with profit before interest, tax, amortisation and other exceptional costs (EBITA) at £2.6m, up from £2.5m a year earlier.

The firm posted a pre-tax loss for the year of £239,000, a figure weighed down by £2m of finance costs.

In the results statement, the firm said it had made progress in its strategy to provide full business process outsourcing services and had benefited from signing six new long-term contracts with Citroen, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, The Countess of Chester NHS Trust and Setanta.

For more, see next week's PrintWeek.