LONDON, UK: Appreciate Group, the UK’s leading multi-retailer redemption product provider to Corporate and Consumer markets, has acquired the entire share capital of MBL Holdco Ltd, a North East-based gift card technology provider to UK businesses and consumers, from Redu Group Ltd.

The acquisition was completed on 24 June 2022 for an initial cash consideration of £1.65m, with a further £1.8m deferred for 12 months dependent on certain criteria being met. The initial cash consideration is being met from Appreciate’s existing financial resources.

The acquired business operationally will be self-funded and is expected to be cost-neutral to the Group.

MBL Holdco specialises in offerings which are complementary to Appreciate’s fast-growing Corporate business, including:

· An end-to-end gift card processing and management service for retailers

· A digital gift card mall enabling B2C and B2B customers to purchase gift cards directly from a catalogue of over 160 high-street retailers

· A SaaS offering, which is a fully white-labelled eCommerce platform, enabling businesses to launch their own fully functional gift card websites

Highlights:

· MBL’s market-leading scalable platform capabilities strengthen the Group’s technology infrastructure, and thereby accelerate its technology roadmap by approximately 18 months.

· Leveraging MBL’s platform provides immediate commercial opportunities, whilst enabling the Group to realise growth opportunities in its plans earlier.

· MBL’s offerings support the Group’s aim to grow its SaaS solutions, outsourced gift card programmes and bespoke white-labelling of gift card websites for Corporate clients – all key areas in its medium-term plans to drive further growth in its Corporate business.

· Integrating MBL’s platform with the Group’s existing infrastructure provides cross-sell benefits and cost synergies, as well as opportunities to improve front-end architecture and customer journeys – making interactions easier for customers and our products and services more competitive.

· The MBL client base complements the Group’s existing Corporate and Retail client base and will offer additional opportunities to extend and develop Appreciate’s services within these groups.

Ian O’Doherty, Chief Executive Officer, at Appreciate Group commented: “The acquisition of MBL rapidly accelerates the Group’s technology plans and immediately enhances our capabilities, particularly in our Corporate business, where we are already enjoying increased customer demand for our products. The MBL platform will help us improve the competitiveness of our offerings and bring forward opportunities that can deliver higher levels of growth. We look forward to working with the MBL team to enhance our proposition for our customers and create value for our shareholders.”

Adam Hobbs, Head of Retail Partnerships, at MBL, said: “MBL becoming part of Appreciate Group is positive news for customers and partners of both organisations. Both MBL and Appreciate Group see clear opportunities to bring together each other’s technology and market position to enhance the services and products they provide. The team at MBL is looking forward to working with Appreciate Group to realise its plans.”