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The £33.5m deal would allow the Cork-based cybersecurity company to bypass the IPO process.
Cork-based cybersecurity company Smarttech247 has entered a non-binding agreement with Conduity Capital to list on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM sub-market via a reverse takeover (RTO).
The deal would see Smarttech247 acquired by Conduity, which is a cash shell company listed in London, for £33.5m (€39.4m). This would be payable in new shares of Conduity and would allow the Irish cybersecurity outlet to go public but bypass the IPO process.
Ronan Murphy, founder and CEO of Smarttech247, said the company was pleased to be introduced to Conduity “as a potential party to help achieve a listing for Smarttech247” via a RTO.
“We are therefore very much looking forward to working with the board of Conduity towards the completion of the transaction which, I believe, will enable us to continue to drive the business forward to the next level,” he added.
“We believe that the Smarttech247 business is well placed to become a global leader in the automated managed detection and response space. We have a proven track record, strong revenues and growth plans and a fantastic book of clients, and we believe that working now with Conduity will help us to achieve our business goals.”
The cybersecurity company, founded in 2008, combines threat intelligence with managed detection and response to provide insights, threat detection, investigation and response services to customers.
It announced plans to expanded its Cork team in February of this year, and it reported gross profits for the year ended 31 July 2020 of €829,000 on revenue of €4.8m.
In June, Smarttech247 announced it had secured a multi-year contract with a Fortune Global 1000 manufacturing company that employs more than 100,000 staff. It has more than 50 clients in total across Europe and the US.
Greg Collier, chair of Conduity Capital, described cybersecurity as a “fast-growing market”, with threats to organisations “increasing on a daily basis”.
“We are therefore very excited to be working with Smarttech247 towards a RTO which we believe would be transformational for Conduity,” Collier added. “Smarttech247 is already an established company in the sector with a successful track record of growing revenue and profitability. Going forward, we firmly believe that both the company and the sector are poised for further significant growth.”
Infosec is a constantly developing sector and the global cybersecurity industry expected to grow in value to $248bn by 2023. Earlier this year, Smarttech247 general manager Raluca Saceanu told Siliconrepublic.com that “the threat landscape is evolving at a dangerous pace”, echoing a similar sentiment from the company’s CTO last year.
