SYDNEY: Spirit Technology Solutions (ASX:ST1) has entered into a binding share purchase agreement to acquire 100% of the issued shares in Forensic IT Solutions Pty Ltd for an aggregate consideration of approximately $7.6 million and the issue of $1.6 worth of ordinary shares in Spirit at an issue price of $0.05941 per share.

Forensic IT is a major provider of cyber security digital forensic and incident response (DRIF) solutions to more than 180 customers across Australia. Forensic IT provides a range of value-added assurance and consulting services in the following areas:

 Digital forensics – Forensic IT provides expert solutions for unearthing intellectual property and data theft and specialises in retrieving and analysing data from digital devices for criminal and civil investigations.

 Incident response – Forensic IT mitigates attacks to protect the data and digital assets of organisations and assists with the restoration of business operations.

Spirit’s strategic rationale for the acquisition is:

 Forensic IT is highly complementary to Spirit’s cyber offering via Infotrust;

 Spirit considers there are revenue and margin accretion opportunities through the Acquisition by expanding Spirit’s cyber capability to enable rapid response to cyber incidents;

 it is proposed that Brendan McCreesh (Director of Forensics) and Jordan Hunt (Director of Cyber and Incident response), who are key team members of Forensic IT, will join Spirit’s leadership team as part of the Acquisition;

 the Acquisition is expected to scale Spirit’s cyber security division and reinforce Spirit’s position as one of Australia’s leading cyber security companies; and

 the Acquisition is expected to support Spirit in executing its strategy of enhancing its organic growth.

Company also announced fully underwritten placement and accelerated non-renounceable entitlement offer to raise approximately $20 million.

Julian Challingsworth appointed MD and CEO of Spirit Technology Solutions