LONDON: Catena Group Plc has signed a conditional acquisition agreement to acquire Insight Capital Partners, a data science and machine learning solutions company.
The Acquisition is for the balance of Insight shares not already owned by the Company, following Catena’s initial acquisition of 9.1 percent of Insight in March 2020.
The Acquisition constitutes a reverse takeover pursuant to Rule 14 of the AIM Rules for Companies and as such will require the approval of Shareholders which will be sought at the General Meeting convened for 9.00 a.m. on 7 May 2021.
The Admission Document and circular to Shareholders, including the Notice of General Meeting and Form of Proxy have been posted to Shareholders and are also available on the Company’s website: catenagroup.co.uk.
Acquisition of the outstanding 89.9 percent of Insight is to be satisfied by the issue of 45,311,386 Consideration Shares at 59 pence per share (£27.9 million) and, depending on the number of Consideration Shares that the Insight Option Holders acquire, Cash Consideration of up to £1.5 million.
Catena progresses on its proposed acquisition of Insight Capital Partners
The Company is proposing to raise a total of approximately £6.1 million (before expenses) by way of a conditional placing of the Placing Shares, at the Issue Price of 67 pence per Placing Share representing a premium of approximately 14 per cent to the closing middle market price of 59 pence per Ordinary Share on 2 September 2020 (being the last business day before the Ordinary Shares were suspended). The Placing Shares will represent up to approximately 10.0 per cent of the Enlarged Share Capital at Admission.
Catena Group plc CEO, Matthew Farnum-Schneider, commented: “We are delighted to have agreed our full acquisition of Insight and to be re-admitted to trading on AIM today. The completion of the Acquisition will mark the start of an exciting new chapter for the Company in artificial intelligence and machine learning.
We are also pleased to welcome Steve Cracknell, Warren Pearson and Peter Rutter to the Board and the Insight team to the Company and we look forward to working with them to realise Insig AI’s growth potential. Finally, I’d also like to recognise the efforts and commitment of David Hillel, David Coldbeck and John Zucker and their many years of service to the Company.”
Insight is a data science and machine learning solutions company that provides bespoke web-based applications, advanced analytical tools and modern technology infrastructure to make machine learning accessible to investment professionals.
Insight was co-founded by Steve Cracknell and Warren Pearson who had previously worked together at Goldman Sachs in the early 2000s and then again in 2013 when they took over the running of a machine learning start-up based in Silicon Valley. On returning to London in 2017, they established Insight to develop solutions for the asset management industry.
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