Private investment company to subscribe for 63.5M Urbanise shares at 22.5 cents per share to raise A$14.287M.
Shares will be subject to a voluntary restriction deed (escrow) for a period of 18 months.
Proceeds of share placement to fund acquisition of complementary technology platforms and fund business growth.
Placement subject to the completion of Business Sale Agreement.Urbanise.com Limited (Urbanise) (ASX:UBN) today announced that Argosy Capital Limited, a private investment company, has agreed to subscribe for 63.5M Urbanise shares at an issue price of 22.5 cents per share to raise A$14.287M. Demonstrating their long-term shareholder commitment to Urbanise, the shares issued will be voluntarily escrowed for a period of 18 months from the date of issue.
The proceeds of the share placement will be used to fund the acquisition of WattkeeperTM and Intelligen intellectual property and certain business assets from Infotech (Pty) Limited (Infotech) and related entities ($12M), general operating capital to meet transaction costs, along with normal operating expenses including employees, corporate administration, travel and marketing costs. Urbanise today executed the Business Sale Agreement (BSA) in respect of the intellectual property and business assets discussed above.
The technology Urbanise proposes to acquire comprises:
A cloud based micro-utility billing solution that enables the rapid deployment, billingand reading of smart meters for electricity, water and gas. Designed specifically to enable strata managers to deliver price optimised utility charging and smart consumption plans for their communities and buildings;
A suite of smart meter devices that are designed to enable automated meter reading, pre-paid and post-paid business models and smart automation models that can limit utility consumption (peak demand control), shift utility consumption (load shifting) or intelligently detect water leaks or improper electricity consumption;
A route optimisation, prioritisation and dispatching solution. Designed to enable service providers with a mobile workforce to optimise delivery costs and provide real time distance from and time to arrival information to their customers who are receiving delivered goods.
A mobile asset tracking solution that enables owners and operators of large fleets, rental equipment and critical personnel to ensure they are operating in a specific location and to alert and track them when they are not.
Commenting on the technology-fit, Urbanise’s Chief Product Officer Rob Cumming said “The functionality of these technologies not only expands the market segments that can use the Urbanise Building Service Delivery Platform, but also fill gaps in our solution set that our customers ask us for every day. Specifically designed for sub-metered communities and buildings, WattkeeperTM extends our utility reporting functionality to include residential and commercial meter reading and billing. Smart metered Utility operation is the number one request we receive from our Strata Manager customers in every region. Intelligen, on the other hand, supercharges our Service Operations Platform – delivering an optimized “Uber-like” experience for every one of our service providers using our mobile apps for delivery and our customer portals and apps for ordering services.”
Urbanise CEO Ben Churchill added, “We are confident that this acquisition will result in immediate benefits for Urbanise. The financial impact of offering Utility billing to our existing South African sectional (strata) title customers alone is significant. In recent market testing, we received five signed expressions of interest from current South African customers to whom we presented the potential new features. Each of the five customers have expressed an interest in using the new modules as they become available. The potential annual recurring revenue from these five customers alone, is around US$3 million.”
The private placement is subject to the BSA proceeding to completion. The BSA is subject to South African regulatory approval which the Company anticipates receiving within the next four weeks.
Further details regarding WattkeeperTM and Intelligen are included in the presentation released to the ASX today.
About Argosy
Established in 2008, Argosy Capital Limited is a privately-owned business headquartered in the Isle of Man. Argosy invests off a proprietary balance sheet in opportunities across a range of industries and jurisdictions. Their focus is predominantly on private equity investments, including limited exposure to venture capital. Argosy does not have a fixed investment horizon and does not raise or manage investments for the public. www.argosy.co.im
About Urbanise
Urbanise is the creator of a cloud-based platform for delivering building services. Designed for service providers, the Urbanise Industry Cloud software-as-a-service platform is transforming the traditional engineering approach to building operations – improving customer service, removing operational costs and enabling new revenue streams. Urbanise technology is used in some of the tallest towers and most prestigious communities around the globe. www.urbanise.com