Paisley fintech Beeks pursues acquisition strategy with $1.4m purchase
Paisley-based Beeks Financial Cloud Group, a cloud computing and connectivity provider for financial markets, has snapped up a Us-based online service provider.
Aim- quoted B eeks has, in a$1.4m ill ion(£1.1m) deal, acquired the assets of Commercial Network Services (CNS), which specialises in hosting low-latency algorithmic trading systems, virtual private networks and streaming media from data centres in London, New York and Los Angeles.
CNS was founded in 2000 and provides services to about 1,000 retail traders across multiple geographies. It has annualised recurring revenue of roughly $1m and delivered a pre-tax profit of $170,000 in 2018.
Beeks said the deal is forecast to be earnings-enhancing in its first full year of ownership.
“With an established cus - tom er base, high levels of recurring revenue and strong service offering, the transaction adds both scale and costsynergies to Beeks’ retail trader offering ,” it said.
In 2017, the fintech launched on Aim, and in February of this year said first-half revenues showed a 36 percent yearon-year jump to£3.5m while underlying pre-tax profit was up 46 p er cent to £ 410,000. However, it said full-year earnings were set to come in lower than previously forecast.
Boss Gordon Mcarthur said yesterday: “At the time of our [initial public offering] we stated our belief that the fragmen ted nature of our industry would provide us with the potential to augment our organic growth with both bolton and strategic acquisitions.
“[CNS] is a profitable business whose services reflect those we offer to retail traders. The business therefore fits well within our acquisition criteria and we anticipate will be a valuable addition to the group.”