Sage disposes of seven non-core products

15th Feb 2013 11:32

Software giant The Sage Group is disposing of seven products it considers non-core units in a move to streamline business. The FTSE 100 company said it has reached an agreement to sell the products for an total price of £93.4m, of which £81.9m is payable in cash on completion. The items include three from its North American division, namely Sage ACT!, Sage SalesLogix and the Sage Nonprofit Solutions, and four software suites from Europe; C&I, ATL, Automotive and Aytos."The sale of these non-core products is consistent with our strategy of focusing our business to accelerate growth and demonstrates significant progress in streamlining the portfolio, allowing regional management to focus on the considerable growth opportunities within their core markets," Chief Executive Guy Berruyer said.Contact management software products Sage ACT! and Sage SalesLogix will be sold to Swiftpage. Sage Nonprofit Solutions, the group's vertical software solutions for not-for-profit organisations, will be bought by Accel-KKR. The consideration is £64.8m in aggregate and £58.4m is to be paid in cash once the deal is finalised.Sago will also receive a £1.9m seller note from Swiftpage and £4.5m in the form of a 16.1% equity stake in Swiftpage. As at September 30th, 2012, the related gross assets were £243.1m and earnings before interest, taxes and amortisation (EBITDA) for the year came to £4.8m. In Europe, Sage has received a binding offer from Argos Soditic for the sale of C&I, ATL and Automotive in France and Aytos in Spain. The £28.6m sale is subject to approval from the French Works Council. Shares rose 0.93% to 336.70p at 11:48 Friday.RD