Dye & Durham in discussions to buy Idox

Toronto-headquartered Dye & Durham has announced it is engaged in discussions to acquire Idox plc. It has submitted three non-binding indicative proposals, with the latest proposal of 75p per share being submitted yesterday. The latest proposal values Idox at an equity value of approximately £342.8m. 

The latest offer represents a premium of 39% compared to the closing share price immediately prior to Dye & Durham's initial proposal on 09 February. Dye & Durham made the announcement following movement in Idox's share price yesterday. Idox's share price opened yesterday at 57p but was trading at 74p at the time of writing. 

Dye & Durham, which has been in existence since 1874, describes itself as a legal technology company, but has broadened its industry coverage through acquisition. It achieved revenue of C$65.5m (c.£37m) in its last full financial year (year ended 30 June 2020). Following a bought deal offering of common shares last year it acquired UK-based Property Information Exchange for £31m in September; SAI Global Property for C$87m in December; DoProcess for C$530m in December; and in February 2021 it entered into an agreement to acquire GlobalX Information for C$166m. It announced a C$500m bought deal offering of common shares and convertible debentures earlier this week to fund future acquisitions and is forecasting revenue of over C$340m for the year ended 30 June 2022. 

Dye & Durham says it has a vision of becoming the world's leading provider of public records registry data and the workflows this information powers, so you can see the attraction of Idox. Theale-headquartered Idox made good progress in 2020 with results for the year ended 31 October 2020 showing revenue up 4% to £68.0m (see Idox delivers a strong performance in 2020). It has made a positive start to the current financial year and counts over 90% of local authorities in the UK as a customer.

There is no certainty that an offer will be made. Dye & Durham has until 19 March to announce a firm intention to make an offer or not.

Posted by: Dale Peters at 10:22

Tags: acquisition   legal   local+government   public+sector  

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