Hansen acquires Sigma Systems

Acquisition of Sigma Systems.

Hansen Technologies Limited announced the signing of definitive agreements for the acquisition of Sigma Systems (“Sigma”). The acquisition is expected to close on 31 May 2019.

Key Points:

Founded in 1996, Sigma is a leading global provider of catalog-driven software products for telecommunications, media, and high-tech companies. Its software is designed to streamline complex product and service offerings and provide a faster path to creating, selling and delivering new digital products and services, combined and packaged with traditional core services.
It is being acquired for an enterprise value (EV) of CAD157.0m (AUD166.2m1) – which equates to an EV/EBITDA acquisition multiple of 8.3 times calendar year 2018 (CY182) normalised EBITDA3
Funding for the acquisition will be 100% provided by a new bank debt facility of AUD225m underwritten by RBC Capital Markets.
Sigma has been majority owned by private equity investor Birch Hill Equity Partners Management since 2015.
CY18 revenue was CAD73.1m (AUD75.5m4) and CY18 normalised EBITDA3 was CAD18.8m (AUD19.4m4).
CY18 revenue split was Americas 56%, EMEA 29% and APAC 15%.
Sigma has more than 70 customers with deployments in some 40 countries. Tier 1 customers include Liberty Global, Telstra, Vodafone, Inmarsat, Telkomsel, Altice, and Cox Communications.
Sigma has more than 480 staff with major offices located in Toronto, Canada (Head Office), London and Wales (UK) and Pune, India.
The strong strategic rationale for the acquisition includes:
The business is a high-quality asset – being a global leader in providing enterprise catalog-driven software products to the communications, media and high-tech sectors
It significantly expands Hansen’s scale and scope in the telecommunications sector – revenue from the telecommunications sector would have been 38% of total revenue in CY18 on a pro-forma basis if Sigma was owned during that period, compared to actual of 17%
Cross-sell opportunities exist into Hansen’s large utilities customer base by integrating the Catalog product into our energy product offerings, as well as PayTV.
The acquisition is expected to be earnings per share (EPS) accretive in FY202, excluding amortisation of acquired intangibles5.

Sigma Overview
Products
The Sigma product portfolio comprises catalog-driven software solutions that streamlines complex product and service offerings for communications, media, and high-tech companies.

The product portfolio includes:

Catalog – which provides a single source of “knowledge” for all of the service provider’s products and services, enabling the introduction and management of new and existing products and services with a single point of control, thus reducing the time-to-market for new offerings.
Configure Price Quote (CPQ) – Catalog-driven, this product applies real-time, enterprise-wide pricing structures to quote and capture orders, from standardised consumer offerings to complex tailored enterprise services.
Order Management – provides end-to-end management of an order, from when it is placed to when it is fulfilled and operational.
Portfolio Inventory – provides a single source of “knowledge” on all the products customers have ordered, the services that were activated for those products, and the resources that were provisioned for those services.
Provisioning – a network service and device activation product that manages, tracks and activates a complete range of network communication services and devices from a set of preconfigured activation solutions.
Insights – an analytics tool that provides service providers with real-time visibility of operational and sales performance at a granular level, allowing them to adjust sales strategies as necessary.
Sigma’s products enable business growth from new digital services combined and packaged with traditional core services. The product suite is highly complementary in nature and drives cross-sell expansion after initial deployment of one product. Product deployment can be either cloud or on-premise.

Sigma’s go-to-market strategy comprises a global direct sales force, combined with partnering with several systems integrators and CRM providers such as PwC, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Microsoft and Salesforce to expand reach.

Customer Base
Sigma has a diversified revenue base with over 70 customers globally with deployments in approximately 40 countries. The average customer age is more than 8 years and includes many Tier 1 operators across the globe.

Customers include: Vodafone, Liberty Global, Telstra (Australia), Altice, Cox Communications (USA), Ziggo (Netherlands), Telkomsel (Indonesia), J:Com (Japan), Inmarsat (UK), Telmex (Mexico), Tiscali (Italy), Telus (Canada), Sky (UK), EWE TEL (Germany) and ViaSat (USA).

Financial Profile
Revenue in calendar year 2018 (CY18) was CAD73.1m (AUD75.5m4) and CY18 normalised EBITDA3 was CAD18.8m (AUD19.4m4), equating to a normalised EBITDA margin of 25.7%

Sigma has high levels of recurring revenue – derived from maintenance & support fees, periodic licence fees and managed professional services, while non-recurring revenue is derived from professional services and one-off licence fees.

CY18 revenue split was Americas 56%, EMEA 29% and APAC 15%.

Strategic Rationale
There is strong strategic rationale for the acquisition:

The business is a high-quality asset – being a global leader in providing enterprise catalog-driven software products to the communications, media and high-tech sectors
Sigma’s proprietary products sit within or adjacent to our core business of billing and customer management, and are well designed to capture growth opportunities from the rollout of new telecommunications services such as 5G
It significantly expands Hansen’s scale and scope in the telecommunications sector – revenue from the telecommunications sector would have been 38% of total revenue in CY18 on a pro-forma basis if Sigma was owned during that period, compared to actual of 17%
Cross-sell opportunities exist into Hansen’s large utilities customer base by integrating the Catalog product into our energy product offerings, as well as PayTV
Sigma further expands the depth and breadth of our global presence
It is expected to be earnings per share accretive in FY20, excluding amortisation of acquired intangibles5.

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