Columbus: Announces offer to acquire UK-based e-commerce consultancy

Today, Columbus announced that the company has submitted a conditional offer to acquire Endless Gain Ltd., which is a leading conversion rate optimization consultancy that focuses on enhancing digital customer experience for the UK retail industry. 

Endless Gain has 25 consultants located in the UK and India, which will be added to Columbus’ global digital commerce team consisting of more than 250 consultants. Endless Gain’s retail industry reputation and capabilities are expected to positively influence Columbus’ reputation. 

As announced in Columbus’ new strategy plan, ‘New Heights’, the company will expand its suite of services and strengthen its position in key geographic markets via acquisitions. The acquisition of Endless Gain is in line with this plan, as this will reinforce Columbus’ market position in the UK retail industry with a more complete offering within digital commerce. 

Strategically, the acquisition will both increase cross-sell opportunities and increase the share of the wallet among digital commerce customers. The acquisition broadens Columbus’ capabilities to ongoing support for customer growth post-launch, and Columbus expects to expand this to the Nordic countries where Columbus has a strong presence with close to 1,000 employees. Globally, Columbus has around 1,600 employees in total.

The agreed acquisition price (enterprise value) for Endless Gain is GBP 3.0m, with GBP 1.5m paid at closing, and the remaining GBP 1.5m is dependent on earnings targets and is expected to be paid over the next three years. The planned closing date is 3 January 2024 with 1 January 2024 being the effective date. The acquisition is financed by Colombus’ available funds.

Endless Gain expects revenue in 2023 of approx. GBP 1.9m and EBITDA in 2023 of approx. GBP 0.5m. Based on these expectations, Endless Gain is valued at approx. 1.6x EV/Sales (2023E) and approx. 3.0x EV/EBITDA (2023E). Looking at the EV/EBITDA multiple for Endless Gain, this is well below Columbus' current EV/EBITDA multiple of approx. 8.5x based on the midpoint in the 2023 guidance range.

Read the full announcement here: https://view.news.eu.nasdaq.com/view?id=bb684ffe32bb1ac47088f9fb0b993c2ad&lang=en&src=listed 

Disclaimer: HC Andersen Capital receives payment from Columbus for a Digital IR/Corporate Visibility subscription agreement. /Kasper Lihn 10:55, 30 November 2023.