Next Fifteen Communications Group plc Acquires Charterhouse Research Limited

Next 15, the digital communications group, is pleased to announce the acquisition of the entire issued share capital of Charterhouse Research Limited through its data and insights subsidiary, MIG Global Limited. Charterhouse is a leading specialist financial market research consultancy.

Charterhouse was founded in 2004 by four leading market researchers, Julie Irwin, Mark Dennis, Sara McFadzean and Mervyn Flack. Julie will continue to run the business as Managing Director with Mark and Sara continuing in their position as Directors; Mervyn is relinquishing his role as Chairman.

The initial consideration for the acquisition is £2.75 million and is comprised of £1.74 million as an up-front payment for the business and £1.01 million for the net assets acquired. Of the total initial consideration, £2.58 million is to be satisfied in cash with the balance to be satisfied by the issue to the vendors of 41,598 new ordinary shares in Next 15. Further consideration may become payable based on the profits of Charterhouse for the years ending 31 January 2019 and 31 January 2020. Any deferred consideration that becomes payable will be fully satisfied by cash. The acquisition is expected to be marginally earnings enhancing for the Group in the current financial year.

For the year ended 31 August 2016, Charterhouse reported turnover of £2.69 million, adjusted profit before tax of £0.59 million and net assets of £0.78 million. Charterhouse is to be acquired debt-free.

Tim Dyson, CEO of Next 15, commented: “Next 15 is committed to building a deep data and insight capability at its core. Charterhouse is an important step in that strategy, significantly enhancing our financial services offering. The combination of MIG’s technology driven consultancy and data offering with Charterhouse, a leading specialist in financial market research, will help drive deeper and more actionable insights to the financial services industry.”

Julie Irwin, Managing Director of Charterhouse commented: “We are extremely excited that Charterhouse has joined MIG, a Next 15 company, and are confident that being part of the group will enable us to meet a wider range of the needs of our increasing client base in the financial services sector and further enhance our service offering. The whole Charterhouse team looks forward to working closely with the MIG Global team to develop our information collection and delivery solutions to extend our research services and multi-client surveys.”

Application has been made to the London Stock Exchange for the new ordinary shares to be admitted to AIM and it is expected that admission will take place on 29 September 2017. Following the issue and allotment of the new ordinary shares, the Company will have 75,516,196 ordinary shares in issue. No ordinary shares are held in treasury.