M&A Activity • Jan 9, 2019
M&A Activity
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Acquiring majority holding of Wyres: A decisive competitive advantage in geolocation
Thorigné-Fouillard, 9 January 2019, 6:30 p.m.
Thorigné-Fouillard, France, 9 January 2019 – Kerlink (AKLK – FR0013156007), a specialist in solutions dedicated to the Internet of Things (IoT), announces its new route map for 2020 and a 51% equity investment in Wyres which will reinforce the Group's technological expertise in geolocation.
Annual revenue of €17.1 million compared to €24.8 million in 2017. H2 improved slightly on H1 with revenue of €8.6 million. For data on Q4 and full-year business growth see Annex. This confirms the trend seen in recent months in a market where public carriers are putting off deployment of major IoT projects. This continued to act as a brake on the Group's activity in the last few months. Particularly in the last quarter, Group activity was marked by indefinite delays to major international extension projects and pauses in contracts with Tier 1 operators already signed but not yet executed.
Full-year gross margin should, as expected, top 40%, driven by the growing contribution from the services business.
Given this environment, Kerlink has revised its initial ambitions which targeted revenue of €70 million by 2020. The Group nonetheless stands by its potential for growth.
Its confidence rests on solid fundamentals:
To restore solid growth momentum, the Group has undertaken a 5-point plan of attack, presented at its interim results:
To widen its technological lead, the first plank of the Group's 5-point strategy, Kerlink announced the acquisition, on 8 January 2019, of 51% of the fully diluted capital of simplified joint stock company Wyres.
Wyres has developed an indoor geolocation technology for multi-site industries and operators (logistics, hospitals, agriculture). It was set up in 2015 and at end-2018 had 15 employees and recognised expertise in object location with comprehensive solutions integrating beacons, tags and evaluation kits for the indoor environment. In 2017 it made revenue of €166 thousand and an EBITDA loss of €393 thousand. For Kerlink, it is an essential technological component of the Group's strategy, allowing the firm to strengthen its geolocation offering in the indoor segment. It will act help drive sales growth in priority markets such as Smart Airports, Asset Tracking, Cities & Towns and the Industry & Manufacturing sector.
Yannick Delibie, Co-founder, Deputy General Manager and CTO of Kerlink Group said: "The entrepreneurial spirit, shared vision and ability to innovate of the two teams, backed by Kerlink's industrial capacity means the group can offer its corporate clients industrial indoor geolocation solutions that are high-performing, economically appropriate and technologically differentiated. These genuinely innovative offers are built on a LoRaWanTM spine, leveraging the fitness of this connectivity system for private networks with high industrial value added. The future of industrial IoT is being decided as we speak by bringing together an ecosystem that is growing every day."
1 80,000 stations deployed worldwide by end-2017 (Source: Semtech)
The investment was structured as a subscription for a €1 million capital increase (including issue premium) financed by own funds. Post-deal, the other shareholders in Wyres fully diluted capital are: the founders, with 28.19%, and IoT Capital, with 20.81%.
Simultaneous the capital increase all Wyres partners signed a partners' agreement. Its terms are as follows:
The transaction was approved by Kerlink's Board of Directors. Wyres will be included in the Group's consolidated financial statements from January 2019.
Given the wait-and-see approach of public carriers, market growth is going to depend increasingly on private and alternative operators looking to implement their own network to deploy their IoT solutions. To fully profit from the opportunities offered by this market, Kerlink has launched an aggressive strategy to develop an ecosystem of partners to provide end-to-end offers in each of its priority markets: Smart Airports, Smart Tracking, Smart Cities & Towns and the Smart Industry & Smart Manufacturing sector.
This strategy has already begun to bear fruit with several deployments now under way, particularly Smart Hotel solutions with Hxperience/Accor Invest.
In 2019, the Group is aiming to return to full-year growth, despite a challenging comparison base in H1.
In 2020, Kerlink is confident about its new forecasts and is targeting double-digit growth, positive EBITDA and a positive operating cash flow.
Acquiring majority holding of Wyres: A decisive competitive advantage in geolocation
| Revenue by business (€K) |
Q4 2018 | Q4 2017 | Change | 2018 | 2017 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public carriers | 2,332 | 6,492 | -64% | 6,550 | 14,714 | -55% |
| Private carriers | 3,102 | 3,330 | -7% | 10,192 | 9,907 | 3% |
| Reference design | 83 | 46 | 80% | 326 | 147 | 121% |
| Total | 5,517 | 9,868 | -44% | 17,068 | 24,767 | -31% |
IFRS – Unaudited figures
| Revenue by region (€K) |
2018 | 2017 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| NCSA (Americas) | 428 | 561 | -24% |
| APAC (Asia-Pacific) | 4,309 | 8,697 | -50% |
| EMEA, excl. France | 3,339 | 3,507 | -5% |
| FRANCE | 8,992 | 12,001 | -25% |
| Total | 17,068 | 24,767 | -31% |
IFRS – Unaudited figures
Kerlink Group is a front-ranking international provider of end-to-end solutions for the Internet of Things (IoT), addressing telecom carriers, businesses, and public authorities worldwide. Its growing range of turnkey IoT service, covering everything from network planning to design and operations management, enhances its offer of carrier-grade, market leading infrastructures. Widely recognised for its expertise in IoT, the Group regularly unveils high value-added, innovative services, such as geolocation from the network, remote management of connected equipment, and energy-efficient IoT reference designs, enabling its clients to rapidly launch IoT devices on the market and devise innovative business models for monetizing their deployments. Kerlink has been listed on the Euronext Growth Paris market since May 2016 and in 2017 was listed on the EnterNext PEA-PME 150 index of 150 fast-growing French SMEs. In April 2018, Kerlink joined the Tech 40 index, which recognises the topperforming tech SMEs on the Euronext markets in Amsterdam, Brussels, Lisbon and Paris.
For more information, go to www.kerlink.fr and follow us on Twitter @kerlink_news
Acquiring majority holding of Wyres: A decisive competitive advantage in geolocation
2018 revenue
H1 2019 revenue 23 July 2019, after trading
H1 2019 Results 26 September 2019, after trading
Q3 2019 revenue 22 October 2019, after trading
Investor contact: Actifin Benjamin Lehari +33 (0)1 56 88 11 25 [email protected]
Financial Press contact: Actifin Isabelle Dray +33 (0)1 56 88 11 29 [email protected]
Press and Market Analysts contact: Mahoney Lyle Sarah Lyle +33 (0)6 75 85 60 42 [email protected]
www.kerlink.com fr.linkedin.com/company/kerlink @kerlink_news
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