Belfast-headquartered IT provider Novosco Group, which was founded by two Northern Ireland entrepreneurs, has been acquired by the German-listed Cancom Group in a £70 million (€79 million) takeover deal.
Novosco, established by Patrick McAliskey and John Lennon in 2007, employs 300 people across three sites in Belfast, Manchester and Dublin.
Confirming details of the deal, Mr McAliskey, the group’s managing director, and Mr Lennon, its sales director, said: “This is a hugely positive and exciting development for Novosco, our people, our customers and the communities in which we operate, bringing together two companies with very complementary expertise and very similar cultures, ambitions and outlooks.”
As part of the deal Mr McAliskey will continue to be a shareholder and adviser to Cancom UK, while Mr Lennon will become joint managing director of Cancom UK together with Martin Hess, currently Cancom UK’s managing director.
Capabilities
Munich-headquartered Cancom, which employs 3,500 people worldwide and has annual revenue in the region of €1.4 billion, said the acquisition of Novosco would extend its capabilities.
Thomas Volk, chief executive of its parent company, Cancom SE, which is listed in the MDAX and TecDAX of the Frankfurt stock exchange said: “Virtually all Novosco customers have no business connection to us yet.
“In addition, the transaction gives us direct market access in Ireland for the first time, and around 300 specialist staff and a highly profitable business will join Cancom. We are very excited about this acquisition.”
According to Cancom, before the transaction Novosco “planned to achieve” revenue of about £55 million and an ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) margin of about 17 per cent in 2019.
