In an announcement last Friday (5 October), Global Graphics confirmed it had come to an agreement with Congra on the terms of an all-cash acquisition of its entire issued and to-be-issued share capital.
Digital inkjet software developer Global Graphics, a PLC based in Cambridgeshire, has had a longstanding strategic partnership with Hybrid – the two entities worked together on the Fundamentals project, providing the building blocks for OEMs to create digital front-ends (DFEs) out of a combination of the pair’s software technologies.
The terms will be summarised in a scheme of arrangement to be issued to shareholders and then voted on at an upcoming meeting. Global shareholders would be entitled to €4.25 (£3.72) cash per share in the transaction – valuing the full deal at €50.3m.
Dates for the publication of the scheme and the shareholders’ meeting are yet to be confirmed.
Speaking for Global Graphics’ board of directors, which unanimously supports the proposal, chief executive Gary Fry said: “The board believes that this is a good outcome for shareholders. We believe that the offer constitutes a fair representation of our value.
“We have enjoyed a strategic partnership with Hybrid Software for a number of years as a technology partner, and in a number of instances have been working together to offer customers a broader spread of software solutions. I see only positive benefits for our partners, customers and employees.”
Hybrid Software is the trading name under which the bulk of Congra’s subsidiaries operate, of which Guido Van der Schueren is the controlling shareholder. He has also sat as chair of Global Graphics since May 2014, during which time Fry said the developer had “benefitted from [his] direction and support”.
Yesterday (10 October), Global Graphics posted its trading update for Q3 2018, indicating a near-€1m uptick in revenue to €5.47m (£4.76m) compared to Q3 2017, as well as revenue of €16.83m (£14.73m) for the year so far – up from €14.67m (£12.84m) at this point last year – with an EBITDA of €4.19m (£3.67m) for the nine-month period.
Global Graphics' share price climbed to €4.31 following the announcement and stood at €4.33 at the time of writing.
Global Graphics recently announced a partnership with Mark Andy to launch a major update for the DFE of the latter’s Digital Series HD hybrid press incorporating Global’s ScreenPro screening engine – having launched version 2.0 of the system in July.
