KBS Corporate Advise on Sale of Route Monkey Limited

KBS Corporate has advised on Trakm8 Holdings plc’s £9.1m acquisition of Route Monkey Limited, a provider of technology solutions for the optimisation of fleet routing.

Trakm8 is an AIM listed telematics and data provider to the global market place using Big Data analytics to improve driver behaviour. Following the £3.2m purchase of DCS Systems Ltd through KBS Corporate, the acquisition of Route Monkey falls in line with Trakm8’s strategy of augmenting its organic growth with selective acquisitions which will enable it to expand its telemetics offering to both insurance and fleet customers..

Based in Livingston, West Lothian, Route Monkey offers a wide range of products and services designed to optimise resources and assets, generate efficiencies and increase productivity through unique software tools and algorithms.

John Watkins, executive chairman of Trakm8, said: “The acquisition of Route Monkey is highly complementary to Trakm8 as it adds route planning and optimisation capability to our existing technology, a key to enabling us to offer integrated solutions to customers in line with the development of market requirements.

“We look forward to welcoming the Route Monkey team into the growing Trakm8 group and expect the business will add another source of organic sales growth and recurring revenues.

“Together the acquisitions of Route Monkey and DCS significantly enhance Trakm8’s competitive advantage, add substantial growth opportunities, and are expected to be earnings enhancing.”

The shareholders of Route Monkey felt that the company would benefit greatly from being under the umbrella of a larger parent with the associated advantages and synergies that it brings.

Route Monkey will continue to be based in Livingston while retaining its small offices in Gateshead and Amsterdam. It currently has 23 employees and senior management are being retained.

Trakm8 will continue to develop the Route Monkey brand and will undertake an integration plan for both the product and engineering “to combine the best of both companies”, Trakm8 said.

KBS Corporate secured 4 offers for the business after attracting a multitude of interested parties consisting of trade buyers and private equity groups.

John Hunt, corporate finance director at KBS Corporate, said: “The acquisition of Route Monkey by Trakm8 creates a clear win-win situation for both companies.

“Both Route Monkey and Trakm8 operate in dynamic and growing market sectors and the coming together of these businesses is certain to create excellent growth and expansion opportunities.”

Colin Ferguson, chief executive of Route Monkey, said: “KBS Corporate Finance worked with us from the onset of the sale process and identified numerous potential acquirers. Ultimately, Trakm8 emerged as our preferred choice and KBS worked closely with our legal advisers to deliver a result which was excellent for the company, our shareholders, management team and employees.”