http://www.advancedcomputersoftware.com/


Advanced Computer Software Group plc (Advanced) is the leading supplier of software and IT services to the health, care and commercial sectors with a primary focus on delivering high quality products and services to enable first class delivery of care in the community. Advanced's portfolio for the health and care sector includes IT management and analytics systems for out-of-hospital applications covering urgent and unplanned care, district nursing, hospices, residential care homes, telehealth, end-of-life and long-term-condition management; as well as mobile information systems for community carers.

Advanced additionally delivers back-office systems for NHS trusts, local authorities and care providers and is further strengthening its position in the health checks and pharmacy services markets. Working with partners in the NHS, local government and the private sector, Advanced delivers IT in support of safe and efficient care delivery and greater information for both the commissioner and care provider. The company's unique proposition is the breadth of integrated health and care solutions from patient-facing IT systems through to back-end operational systems and services.

Advanced is also a leading supplier of software and IT services to the commercial sector, which represents 35% of the company's revenues. As the commercial sector typically delivers faster lead times than the health and care sector, this part of the business underpins growth whilst providing opportunities for cross-marketing of products and IT services.











Investment in Avia Health Informatics PLC
RNS
RNS Number : 4406L
Advanced Computer Software Grp PLC
04 September 2012



4 September 2012



Advanced Computer Software Group plc



Investment in Avia Health Informatics PLC



Advanced Computer Software Group plc (AIM: ASW, "Advanced", or "the Group"), a leading provider of healthcare and business management software and services, has invested £350,000 in the AIM listed Avia Health Informatics PLC ("Avia") in the form of a convertible loan note with a term of three years.



The loan note, which attracts zero interest, is secured by a fixed and floating charge over the Company's assets and gives Advanced the right to nominate a non-executive director to the Avia board.



The loan will convert, at the discretion of ACS, into 29.9 per cent. of the Company's issued ordinary share capital immediately following the issue of the new Avia ordinary shares of 0.5p each ("the Loan Conversion Shares") to be issued pursuant to the loan conversion.



Vin Murria, Chief Executive, commented:



"Avia is primarily engaged in developing, building and maintaining the Pathfinder RF and Odyssey clinical decision support systems used by over 100 NHS customers and is a long term partner of Advanced Health & Care.



"This strategic investment will further expand and support Advanced's penetration of the NHS to provide better care for more patients."

Q&A: Advanced Computer Software in good health

By Charlotte Kan

March 27 2014, 10:40am
The healthcare division saw good growth in things like the NHS 111 service



Advanced Computer Software (LON:ASW) revealed in its year end trading update that it expects both full-year revenue and adjusted underlying earnings (EBITDA) to be up 67% as it continues to perform strongly across all divisions.
Charlotte Kan (CK) recently spoke to Guy Millward (GW), chief financial officer, about the results and the group’s latest contract win.

CK: First of all, congratulations, this was a strong set of figures. Where did demand come from and what did you do right?

GM: Thank you very much for that. It came, really, across all our businesses. We’ve seen good growth in business solutions, from selling things like collaborative planning, forecasting tools; from selling our managed services into our existing customer base and from our healthcare division, which saw good growth in things like the NHS 111 service. As you’ve seen, we’ve another contract announcement we’ve done today in the community sector, with a new product set we’ve got there in an area which is going to show a lot of growth going forward in the NHS in the next two or three years.

CK: I was actually going to ask you, will the company enjoy similar growth next year? Where will it come from in 2014?

GM: We’re expecting to see growth both organically and from the acquisitions that we’ve done in the year in very similar areas. We did two sizeable acquisitions in the year; CSH, which was done at the start of the last financial year, provides accounting, HR [human resources] and business management software to SMEs [small/medium enterprises], law firms and the not-for-profit sector. That business is now fully integrated and we expect to see growth coming from the investment we’ve made in sales and marketing in that area.

We did an investment in a company in higher education software, a company called Compass Computer Consultants, a couple of months ago. That’s an already growing business that’s likely to bring growth to the advanced group over the next 12 months. Then we are going to see continued organic growth from our existing businesses, pretty much along the lines as I explained before.

CK: Further to that contract win. It’s your third win in the NHS community and mental health space. You’ve said about 68 NHS contracts are expected to be renewed between this year and 2016. Will you be competing for all of those? If it’s not too commercially sensitive, can you tell us, roughly, what your success rate is when tendering for these contracts?

GM: Yes, sure. We expect to be involved in most of the bids, probably not all of them, it will depend exactly on the requirements of each individual customer. We’ve always said that, of the 68 contracts that are up in the next two or three years that we would expect to win between 10 and 15 of them. This, as you rightly said, is our third one, so, if you like, we’ve seven to nine to go, to achieve that target.

As for win rates, it's still very early days. We have to say that we’ve won the contracts that we expected to win, so those that favoured our product set, if you like. The number that we’ve said, between 10 and 15 to win, should be achievable out of the 68 that are there with our product set as it stands at the moment.

CK: You said in your statement that your March acquisition, Computer Software Holdings, is expected to return to growth this year. What happened last year?

GM: The business was, as we said from the outset, flat year-on-year, so the revenues didn’t go down, but they didn’t go up a great deal either. We spent most of the last financial year integrating the business, putting in more sales and marketing resource, putting in development resource to bring some of the products up to speed and doing a lot of integrating of our processes in back office.

All of that’s complete now and we’re already seeing green shoots as regards sales growth coming into the new financial year. We’d expect to see that add to the organic growth that you’re going to see from the whole group over the next twelve months.

CK: One more question, Guy, please. What can investors expect on the acquisition front in 2014?

GM: I think it’s fair to say, we’ve said in the conference call with the analysts this morning that we intend to carry on doing investments, sensible bolt-ons to our existing product sets in all the areas that we cover, and some bigger ones if they’re available to us. So, more activity is what you can expect. More along the lines of exactly what you’ve seen from us before. We tend to buy things that look like ourselves.

That’s good recurring revenues, good profitability, strong cash generation and areas that we should be able to grow organically over the next few years for us.

UPDATE - Advanced Computer named preferred supplier by more NHS Trusts

By Philip Whiterow

April 08 2014, 11:34am
Some 68 NHS contracts are expected to be renewed between 2014 and 2016 as the NPfIT programme comes to an end.


Advanced Computer Software (LON:ASW) has been awarded preferred software supplier status by two more NHS trusts for their mental and community health services.

The two trusts were coming off the National Programme for IT (NPfIT). Some 68 NHS contracts are expected to be renewed between 2014 and 2016 as the NPfIT programme comes to an end.

Last month, Adanced Computer was granted preferred supplier status for Oxford Health Foundation Trust to add to a growing customer list in the mental and community health sector that includes South London and Maudesley, Calderstones Partnership and Cheshire and Wirral.

Vin Murria, Advanced Computer’s chief executive, said: "These awards strengthen Advanced's growing presence in the NHS community and mental health space and position the group well for the future.“

Broker N+1 added these awards strengthen the group’s presence in the NHS community and mental health space and should position it well for further contract awards.

Advanced Computer has a strong track record of delivery and N+1 said there remain significant prospects for further value creation both through organic progress, as demonstrated by today’s update, and through acquisitions.

The broker forecasts underying profits to rise 58% to £36.1mln in the year to February just ended, to be followed by a jump to £39.4mln in 2015.

Final results Wed 4 June

Final Results

RNS


RNS Number : 7698I

Advanced Computer Software Grp PLC

04 June 2014






4 June 2014



Advanced Computer Software Group plc



Significant revenue growth drives EBITDA up 68%



Advanced Computer Software Group plc (AIM: "ASW", "Advanced", or "the Group"), a leading provider of software and IT services to the UK health, care and business sectors, publishes its audited full year results for the year ended 28 February 2014.



Financial highlights



§ Revenue up 68% at £203.2m (2013: £120.9m), 7% organic growth*

§ Recurring revenue up from 57% to 64% of total revenue

§ SaaS/Subscription revenue of £40.9m (2013: £27.5m), 32% of recurring revenue

§ Adjusted EBITDA** up 68% at £45.3m (2013: £27.0m), 10% organic

§ Adjusted EPS** up 18% to 6.6p (2013: 5.6p)

§ Cash conversion strong at 105% (2013: 108%)

§ Dividend up 10% to 0.44p (2013: 0.40p)

§ Double digit order book growth to £209m

§ Compound annual growth over the last five years: revenue 46%, adjusted EBITDA 45%, cash generation 53%



Operational highlights



§ Health & Care: strong organic revenue growth (13%) driven by NHS 111 and Mobile

§ Business Solutions: above-market organic revenue growth (6%)† with growing demand for SaaS/subscription and BI solutions

§ Managed Services: strong growth (15%) in recurring revenues with the division's largest ever contract signed

§ Strategic acquisition of Computer Software Holdings (CSH) Limitedfor £107m on 7 March 2013, fully integrated and performing as expected



* Excluding CSH, 5% organic including CSH

** Adjusted for one-off acquisition and restructuring costs, share based payments and amortisation of acquired intangibles

† Excluding CSH



Vin Murria, Chief Executive, commented:



"We have had another strong year - our fifth - with EBITDA up 68% and earnings per share up 18%. We have now delivered a five year compound annual growth rate of 46% on revenues, 45% on EBITDA and 53% on cash generation.



"Over the last five years, we have built a business which is now the second largest UK-based software and IT services provider to the UK market; with more than 2,000 employees serving 20,000 customers across both private and public markets."



"We have started the current year in line with our expectations. With double digit growth in the order book to £209m, a growing recurring revenue stream, and more customers taking our Software as a Service, we have excellent forward visibility and are increasingly confident about another strong year."

Advanced Computer Software: Panmure Gordon ups target price from 139p to 155p and stays with its buy recommendation.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

INTERVIEW: Advanced Computer Software's annual revenues surge 68%

Wed, 04 June 2014



Advanced Computer Software (ACS), the software and IT group, raised its dividend by 10% after reporting strong full-year growth with annual revenues and operating profits up by over two thirds.

The AIM company, which provides services to the UK health, care and business sectors, said revenues surged by 68% to £203.2m in the year to February 28th, helped by more customers taking its Software as a Service (SaaS).

The contribution from recurring revenue rose to 64%, from 57% previously, "giving excellent revenue visibility", the company said.

In an interview with ShareCast, Chief Executive Officer Vin Murria said that the percentage of recurring revenue is expected to grow incrementally to reflect a "growing trend towards subscription revenues".

Results were also boosted by the £107m purchase of Computer Software Holdings (CSH) last March. While CSH revenue was flat year-on-year as expected, the business helped ACS's Business Solutions division lift sales by 128% to £136.4m.

The acquisition of CSH, which Murria assured was a well-known business to ACS before the acquisition, is now fully integrated. Murria explained that revenues were kept stable as ACS invested in the business, and the company was already beginning to see signs of growth.

Excluding CSH, organic group revenues were 7% higher than the previous year.

Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation increased by 68% to £45.3m. Meanwhile, the board recommended a dividend of 0.44p per share, up 10% on last year.

ACS, which has over 2,000 employees, is now the second-largest UK-based software and IT services provider to the UK market. Murria said the company, which is in its fifth year, has grown revenues and operating profits at compound annual growth rates in excess of 45% since its creation with cash generation growing by 53%.

"We have started the current year in line with our expectations," Murria said.

"With double-digit growth in the order book to £209m, a growing recurring revenue stream, and more customers taking our SaaS, we have excellent forward visibility and are increasingly confident about another strong year."

The stock was 2.4% higher at 125.19p by 09:21.

Broker Panmure Gordon, which raised its target price for the shares from 139p to 155p on Wednesday and kept a 'buy' rating, said: "Investors unnerved by the recent performance of the technology sector are likely to find comfort in Advanced’s track record of delivery, earnings visibility and strong cash generation."

6 Jun Finncap 150.00 Corporate

Company Q&A: Advanced Computer Software continues its winning ways

By Sarah Lowther

June 09 2014, 4:20pm
Vin Murria, chief executive of Advanced Computer Software
Vin Murria, chief executive of Advanced Computer Software


Advanced Computer Software (LON:ASW) recently unveiled another year of strong growth. Chief executive, Vin Murria, spoke to Proactive Investors’ Sarah Lowther about what is pushing revenue growth higher,

Vin: We’ve had a great set of results for the fifth year running, and actually what is driving the growth is exactly what we’ve always done, and that is a combination of organic growth and acquisitive growth, where it’s both synergistic and accretive.

For those of you who don’t know us, we’re focused very much in the healthcare and the business applications arena, so in healthcare we service large chunks of the primary care market, out-of-hours walk-in centres, polyclinics, care homes, hospices, 85% of the 111 market and so on, and also big chunks of community.

Equally, in the business solutions piece, we do the accounting and the HR for large corporates, from NHS trusts, local authorities, all the way through to banks and the Co-op, etc.

Sarah: You have three divisions; which one has the most potential in terms of revenue and in terms of the projects, the milestones?

Vin: Actually, they’re all doing extremely well. If I break through what the group has done over this year, it’s just worthwhile highlighting those numbers.

Our revenues are up 68% this year to £203 million; our EBITDA is up 68% to £45.3mln. Organic growth was 7%; adjusted EBITDA was up 68%, as I mentioned, to £45.3mln, which was 10% organic growth, and our dividend is up 10%.

More interestingly, if we look at our growth over the last five years, what we’ve seen is compound annual growth rate for revenues and EBITDA of 45% upwards and for cash generation of 53%. Most importantly, our earnings per share compound annual growth over the last five years has been 31%. I have to say, that’s an excellent track record by anyone’s measure.
Interestingly enough, we’ve now been established as the second largest UK-based software and services company, behind Sage – we’re told anyway; that’s what we’re told we are.

In terms of standout performance within the divisions, health and care grew very strongly at 13% organically, really focusing around the community market and the NHS 111 and mobile solutions. The business solutions marketplace, alongside managed services, grew at double the market average, really driving our strong cash focus and indeed our cash generation.

One of the key drivers in business solutions is our customers’ willingness to take their applications with us to the public or the private cloud. In that sense, we saw our managed services businesses’ recurring revenues grow by 15% in the year.

Sarah: How comfortable are you sitting in second position? How likely is it that you will overtake Sage?

Vin: It’d be a challenge to take Sage in terms of its global presence, but certainly in terms of its UK presence we’ll continue to do the very best we can. They’re a great company, so I’m not… There’s no competition; it was just a statement that came out recently we thought was quite interesting.

Sarah: To wrap up how we started, you talked about organic growth and about you being acquisitive; is this the same strategy…? Will you be applying the same strategy going forward, any acquisitions on the horizon?

Vin: We always do what we’ve always done; that is a combination of both organic growth and acquisitive growth in the nature that we’ve done, so for the past five years we know very much for the next five years.

Our growth going forward is supported by what we’ve done today. I don’t know if you know that, in the sense of our order book now, that was up double digits this year to £209 million; that very much underpins our success for the future years.

Our recurring revenue, including sales into the user base, is 85% of our overall revenue, which again underpins our future growth, and our ability to cross-sell our software is a great way to go forward. Our focus going forward for the next five years will be to do very, very much exactly what we’ve done in the last five years.

Sarah: You mentioned the next five years, but in one sentence what about the current year? How is that progressing?

Vin: Exactly as we were expecting to, so strong visibility, confident for another strong year, and underpinned by the high levels of recurring revenues, 105% cash conversion. Of course, to prove that we’ve actually just increased our dividend by 10% as well.

Advanced Computer Software's capital reduction rubber-stamped

By John Harrington

August 21 2014, 7:56am
Advanced Computer Software's capital reduction rubber-stamped

Advanced Computer Software (LON:ASW) said the High Court has rubber stamped a move to increase the company’s distributable reserves.

The information technology services provider is one of the small band of AIM-listed stocks paying a dividend, and the decision by the Chancery Division of the High Court to confirm the reduction of the company’s share premium account will give it more flexibility in terms of returning capital to shareholders.

A share premium account is a non-distributable capital reserve and the Companies Act restricts a company’s ability to use any amount credited to that reserve; a company is generally precluded from the payment of dividends or buying back its shares in the absence of sufficient distributable reserves, so the transfer of funds from the share premium account to distributable reserves substantially increases flexibility.

In Advanced Computer’s case, the company had around £80.7mln in its share premium account back in mid-June; this has been reduced to nil and thus the accumulated profit and loss account has been boosted by an influx of £80.7mln, or thereabouts.

Advanced Computer said that, following the capital reduction, the total number of ordinary shares in issue as at 21 August 2014 was 478,938,496.

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Half year trading update

RNS


RNS Number : 7402R

Advanced Computer Software Grp PLC

16 September 2014






16 September 2014



Advanced Computer Software Group plc



Half year trading update



Advanced Computer Software Group plc (AIM: ASW, "Advanced" or "the Group"), a leading provider of healthcare and business management software and IT services, publishes a trading update for the half year ended 31 August 2014.



Financial highlights



The Group expects to report first half results in line with the management's expectations. Revenues will be up 9% to no less than £108.1m (2013: £99.1m) and adjusted EBITDA* up 14% to no less than £25.3m (2013: £22.2m). Cash conversion remains consistently strong at 100%.



At the period end, the Group had net debt of £37.9m (28 February 2014: £49.4m).



Operational highlights



Advanced Business Solutions had a busy period with the successful integration of Computer Software Holdings, the Group's largest acquisition, now completed. There are now clear signs that this business is returning to sustainable growth. The division also completed the implementation of the largest contract in the Group's history for Northern Ireland Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety. Underlying growth continues, driven by the on-going demand from the public and private sectors for shared services, procurement, budgeting and forecasting solutions.



Advanced Health & Care has continued to show excellent progress in the rapidly evolving, post National Programme for IT, community care and mental health care sectors, where Advanced's systems are now preferred or implemented in ten community and mental health NHS Trusts. The Group has also maintained its position as the number one provider to the urgent and unscheduled healthcare sector, including NHS 111, as well as to the homecare, residential care and hospice sectors. This division is also deploying a significant and growing number of innovative and class-leading solutions for mobile point-of-care delivery.



Advanced 365 Managed Services has once again shown its historically strong growth profile for recurring managed services revenues, whilst continuing to reduce its exposure to lower-margin services and hardware sales. Cross-selling cloud-based services, in conjunction with Advanced Business Solutions, remains a significant differentiator.



Vin Murria, Chief Executive, said:



"We continued to see good growth in the first half year and are well positioned to maintain our progress, and deliver full year results in line with our expectations.



"A wide range of further growth opportunities exist for our products and services in both the public and private sectors, particularly in healthcare - where the use of technology as an enabler of efficiency savings remains key.



"Following the integration of CSH, we now have a very strong platform for long term sustainable growth, both organically and through acquisitions."



The Group expects to publish its interim results in the week commencing Monday 3 November 2014.



*Adjusted EBITDA is defined as profit before interest, taxation, depreciation, amortisation of acquired intangibles, exceptional items and share-based payments

16 Sep Liberum Capital 141.00 Buy
16 Sep Panmure Gordon 155.00 Buy
16 Sep N+1 Singer N/A Corporate
16 Sep finnCap 150.00 Corporate

Interim results Tues 4 Nov

30 Oct Panmure Gordon 155.00 Buy

Half Yearly Report

RNS


RNS Number : 0486W

Advanced Computer Software Grp PLC

04 November 2014






4 November 2014



Advanced Computer Software Group plc



Profit up 63% with 100% cash conversion



Advanced Computer Software Group plc (AIM: "ASW", "Advanced", or "the Group"), a leading provider of healthcare and business management software and IT services, announces its unaudited half year results for the six months ended 31 August 2014.



Financial highlights

· Group revenue up 9% to £108.1m (H1 FY14: £99.1m)

· Adjusted EBITDA* up 14% to £25.3m (H1 FY14: £22.2m)

· Pre-tax profit up 63% to £7.8m (H1 FY14: £4.8m)

· EPS growth of 44% to 1.3p (H1 FY14: 0.9p) - adjusted EPS** rose 6% to 3.6p per share

· Cash generated from operating activities £23.7m - cash conversion 100%^

· Net debt of £37.9m, down from £49.4m at February 2014

· Contracted future revenue remains strong at £209.0m

· SaaS/Subscription revenue of £21.2m, 31% of recurring revenue

· Business optimisation action expected to deliver significant gains



*Adjusted for one-off acquisition and restructuring costs and share-based payments

** Adjusted for amortisation of acquired intangible assets, exceptional costs and share-based payments

^ Adjusted EBITDA less depreciation and exceptional costs



Divisional highlights



Health & Care

· Revenue up 10% to £17.1m (H1 FY14: £15.6m), 6% organic growth^^

· EBITDA up 4% to £5.3m (H1 FY14: £5.1m)

· Significant investment in the rapidly evolving community care and mental health market - now 13 NHS trusts with preferred or contracted status

· Strengthened position as number one provider to out of hours sector including NHS 111 and home and residential care markets with growing number of mobile solutions



Business Solutions

· Revenue up 8% to £72.5m (H1 FY14: £67.1m)

· EBITDA up 13% to £19.1m (H1 FY14: £16.9m)

· Implementation of largest ever contract successfully completed

· Successful integration of CSH - now returning to growth

· Underlying organic growth^^^ of 2%



365 Managed Services

· Revenue up 11%, all organic^^, to £18.5m (H1 FY14: £16.7m)

· EBITDA up 9% to £2.4m (H1 FY14: £2.2 m)

· Continued demand for cross selling cloud services

· Return of historically strong growth profile

^^ Organic growth is calculated on a like-for-like basis

^^^Underlying Organic growth is calculated as organic growth adjusted for the impact of completing a major contract in the prior period



Vin Murria, CEO, commented:



"We have delivered further strong performance as we start to benefit from last year's acquisition of CSH, as well as continuing to grow organically across the Group - particularly in our healthcare and cloud markets. In addition, Software as a Service (SaaS)/Subscription revenue now account for 31% of our recurring revenue.



"Our focus is now on optimising operating margins across the Group, which is expected to deliver significant gains. This, together with our strong balance sheet and excellent track record, positions us well for long term sustainable growth, and to take advantage of acquisition opportunities opening up in all of our markets.



"We are increasingly confident of delivering full year results in line with our expectations, based on our solid forward visibility and contracted revenues."

Advanced Computer Software interim profits rise 63%

Tue, 04 November 2014



Advanced Computer Software interim profits rise 63%

Advanced Computer Software group, the healthcare and business management software company, increased profits strongly for the first six months of the year after a successful period of acquisitions.
Profit before tax increased 63% to £7.8m on the same period last year, especially stimulated by a strong performance at its healthcare division.

Revenue rose 9.1% to £108.1m for the half-year to the end of August, while earning per share increased 44% to 1.3p.

The group made its largest transaction to date when it completed the acquisition of Computer Software Holdings (CSH) this year, which it said was returning to growth and starting to delivers its anticipated gains.

Chief executive Vin Murria said: "Our focus is now on optimising operating margins across the group, which is expected to deliver significant gains.

"We are increasingly confident of delivering full year results in line with our expectations, based on our solid forward visibility and contracted revenues."

FinnCap brokers said on Tuesday: "Interims to August are in line with the September trading update, marginally ahead of finnCap forecasts."

N+1 Singer analysts said the results brought "no big surprises", but showed "another period of good, profitable, cash generative growth".

5 Nov finnCap 150.00 Corporate
4 Nov Panmure Gordon 155.00 Buy
4 Nov finnCap 150.00 Corporate
4 Nov N+1 Singer N/A Corporate

Offer for Advanced Computer Software Group plc

http://www.moneyam.com/action/news/showArticle?id=4929402

ACS agrees to £725m offer from Vista

StockMarketWire.com

Advanced Computer Software Group's board has agreed a recommended cash offer from Air Bidco, an investment vehicle indirectly owned by the Vista Funds.

Under the terms of the acquisition, ACS shareholders will receive 140p per share - a 17% premium to last night's closing price.

The acquisition values the entire issued and to be issued ordinary share capital of ACS at approximately £725m on the basis of a fully-diluted share capital of 517,553,829 shares.

ACS chairman Michael Jackson said: "The offer from Vista recognises the outstanding contribution and value creation by the ACS management team over the past six years. At 15.8 times, the offer represents an attractive price - recognising the growth potential of the business whilst providing certainty in cash to ACS Shareholders. This is an excellent return for the long term supporters of the Wider ACS Group."



At 8:50am: (LON:ASW) Advanced Computer Software PLC share price was +18.13p at 137.88p



Story provided by StockMarketWire.com

BIG PICTURE: Advanced Computer's last big deal as a listed company

By John Harrington

November 25 2014, 2:42pm
'We have created a substantial and robust platform, which will benefit from the considerable financial strengths and expertise in the software technology sector of Vista Equity Partners,' Murria said in a stock exchange statement.
"We have created a substantial and robust platform, which will benefit from the considerable financial strengths and expertise in the software technology sector of Vista Equity Partners," Murria said in a stock exchange statement.


The growth story at Advanced Computer Software (LON:ASW) has caught the eye of private equity firm Vista Equity Partners, which is buying the company for £725mln.

The board of AIM-listed Advanced Computer (ACS) is recommending acceptance of the 140p a share offer, which is a 17% premium to the information technology company’s closing price on the day before the bid was announced.

The deal looks set to rob the junior market of one of its highest profile and most successful companies, not to mention one of its most dynamic chief executives in Vin Murria.

Murria took over the company on 23 July, 2008, at a time when it raised funds through a placing of shares at 17p each. The Vista take-out price is therefore a 724% improvement over a period of 76 months.

During that time, through a mixture of shrewd acquisitions and organic growth, revenue has grown from an annualised £12.6mln in the period to 28 February 2009 to £203mln in the year to end-February 2014.

Adjusted underlying earnings (EBITDA) last year were £45mln, up from an annualised £1.8mln five years earlier.

For the first six months of this financial year revenue was £108mln, up 9% year-on-year and adjusted EBITDA was £25mln, up 14%.

"We have created a substantial and robust platform, which will benefit from the considerable financial strengths and expertise in the software technology sector of Vista Equity Partners and support the wider ACS Group as it moves into the next stage of its growth," Murria said in a stock exchange statement.

Chairman Michael Jackson said the offer from Vista recognises the value created by the ACS management team over the past six years.

“At 15.8 times [earnings], the offer represents an attractive price - recognising the growth potential of the business whilst providing certainty in cash to ACS shareholders,” Jackson said.

Vista is a private equity firm focused solely on acquiring enterprise application software and software enabled companies. To date Vista has completed over 140 software and software-related transactions representing some US$32 billion in aggregate value, including 35 transactions in the last twelve months.

The consideration payable under the acquisition will be funded through a mixture of equity financing provided by funds run by Vista, plus debt funding from third party providers of debt finance.

ACS’s recent interim results revealed the cash generated from operating activities in the six months to the end of September was £23.7mln, giving plenty of scope for Vista to serve any debt it takes on to finance the deal.

At the end of September, ACS’s debt level was £37.9mln, down from £49.4mln six months earlier. At the time of the results, the rapidly dwindling level of debt prompted talk of more acquisition activity involving Advanced Computer, but few guessed that this time, the predator would become the prey