Ultima Business Solutions has sold a majority of its share capital to financial house Apse Capital in a move to will spark internal investment and potential acquisitions
The deal will see founder Max McNeill become a significant minority shareholder and is the first time in the outfit’s 30-year history that it has called on outside cash.
The deal has been negotiated over eight months and involved three or four other companies who were snuffling around Ultima’s figures.
For those who came in late, Ultima is a Microsoft, Citrix, Dell EMC, HPE, VMware and Thoughtonomy partner. It posted a pre-tax profit of £2.1 million and revenues of £110 million last year. It hires 400 staff.
The cunning plan is to allow the company to scale its business. Apse Capital is keen to get their paws on Ultima’s SaaS, PaaS, RPA, chatbots and AI skills.
Dodds said the deal was more of a private equity move rather than an MBO. Several members of the management team, including himself, have an interest in the business as a result of the deal.
“What Apse Capital are buying into is the business and existing, management team. We’ve all got an interest in the future of the business and how to grow it over the next few years”, he said.
