Optmisa today announced that its 2007 results were beyond its estimates, and the AIM-listed, marketing services group is confident about 2008.Pre-tax profit in the year increased to £1.26m from £0.73m in 2006 on revenue that rose 94% to £11.42m. Earnings per share is up 34% to 18.37p.
The group has expanded its empire with the recent acquisition of EQ Group in October 2007, for a total cost of £13.13m, including debt of £6.16m.
The company is positive that EQ will meet its demanding investment criteria in 2008 and beyond. "We are already seeing significant group benefits from the acquisition of EQ and the board looks forward to 2008 with confidence," said chairman Ron Littleboy.
On December 21, 2007, Optimisa signed a debt facility of £5.5m with Barclays Bank PLC to refinance the existing EQ Group PLC loans and overdraft.
This debt facility consists of £2.0m term loan repayable in 10 equal quarterly installments, a £2.5m revolving credit facility available until Nov 9 2010, and a 1.0 mln stg overdraft facility.
Barclays have been co-operative to Optimisa, providing flexible banking package to partially fund the acquisition of EQ.
On September 14, 2007, the marketing consultancy group had made a 72 pence a share recommended cash offer for EQ Group, putting the company's value at about £6.4m.
At the moment of writing this article, Optimisa continued its ride to the top, breaching the 160p barrier.
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