ITIS Holdings PLC
27 March 2007
DISPOSAL OF NAVTRAK LIMITED
ITIS Holdings plc ('ITIS'), the UK'S leading provider of traffic information,
today announces the sale of NavTrak Limited ('NavTrak'), its stolen vehicle
tracking subsidiary, to Cobra Automotive Technologies spa ('Cobra') for an
initial payment of £2.20 million in cash (the 'Disposal'). An additional cash
consideration of up to £1.38 million may become payable to ITIS over the next
five years, subject to NavTrak meeting certain trading conditions.
The Disposal will enable ITIS to focus entirely on its core traffic information
business and the proceeds will provide ITIS with additional cash resources which
can be utilised within the Group.
NavTrak's unaudited revenue and pre-tax profits in the nine months to 31st
December 2006, were £3.50 million and £82,500 respectively. As at 31st December
2006, NavTrak had unaudited net liabilities of £0.96 million excluding
inter-group debt.
ITIS will announce an update on trading for the year ending 31st March 2007
towards the end of April.
Commenting on the Disposal Stuart Marks, Chief Executive of ITIS said:
'We are delighted to be selling NavTrak to Cobra who plan to significantly grow
the business through investment and product innovation.
Whilst NavTrak is a profitable company, it has never benefited from the same
economies of scale of its larger competitors and has progressively become a
non-core activity as ITIS has focused on its traffic information businesses.
Over the last few years, NavTrak's success has come from working closely with
premium vehicle manufacturers and providing unrivalled customer service to users
of the system. Combining these skills with Cobra's deep knowledge of this
market, extensive customer base and hardware production capabilities will create
a powerful force in stolen vehicle tracking throughout Europe.'
Commenting on the transaction, Cobra Chief Executive Officer, Carmine Carella,
said:
'This strategic acquisition is consistent with our objective of becoming the Pan
European provider of SVR services and brings the following advantages: it gives
Cobra a strong platform to directly provide SVR services in the important UK
market, it brings solid relationships with prestige car manufacturers that can
be leveraged in the rest of Europe and, finally, offers potential synergies
through the deployment of Cobra's proprietary SVR modules and infrastructure.'
Contacts:
Stuart Marks, Chief Executive, ITIS Holdings plc - 0161 929 5788
Ginny Pulbrook, Citigate Dewe Rogerson - 0207 638 9571
Tim Richardson, Altium - 0207 484 4102
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange