CentralNic (LON:CNIC) is buying privately-owned domain name registrar, Instra Group, funded in part from a £10mln placing of stock with investors at 40p a share, for almost £16mln (A$33mln).
According to the press release “the purchase will extend CentralNic’s capabilities and “significantly increase” its retail offering.”
According to the press release Instra in the year to June 30 posted pre-tax profits of just over £1mln (A$2.1mln) on turnover of £7.11mln (A$14.8mln).
CentralNic chief executive Ben Crawford is quoted as saying:
“The addition of the new business, which is robust and global, will lift the firm’s revenue base by 70%.
Through services like instra.com and asiaregistry.com, Instra Group has made it possible for businesses to secure their domain names in every major country in the world, as well as under new top-level domains, including in Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Russian.
I have traveled the world looking for cutting edge companies to acquire, and Instra stood out among all the others.
“Many of the savviest businesses around the world are already using Instra as their one-stop shop for online brand protection.”
Instra offers three main services: domain portfolio registration for large corporates; domain names and web site hosting for small businesses; and a white label sales platform.
Desleigh Jameson, Instra’s CEO, is expected to join the CentralNic Board following completion of the acquisition.
In trading today in London CentralNic was down some 11.24P or almost 20% trading at 46.26
