- Strategic expansion of beaconsmind into the adjacent hotspot vertical
- Issuance of 155,500 new beaconsmind shares to the seller valued at EUR 13/share for a total of EUR 2,021,500
- Transaction is highly accretive with FREDERIX Hotspot’s run-rate EUR 3.5MM revenues and around EUR 500K EBITDA consolidated under beaconsmind group
- Full financial consolidation of FREDERIX incl. access to cash flows
- Strong synergy effects and client cross-fertilization expected
Zurich, Switzerland – 21 November 2022 – beaconsmind AG (ISIN: CH0451123589 – Ticker: 81D) has agreed to acquire a 51% controlling stake of FREDERIX Hotspot GmbH in an acquisition and coherent extension of its business model as a B2B Point-of-Sales solution provider.
FREDERIX is a provider for corporate Wifi solutions (FREDERIX Hotspot) and a developer of smart, cloud-based WLAN hotspot technologies (FREDERIX Cloud Wifi). The company offers products that help the clients in the networking, control and monitoring of WLAN networks.
beaconsmind will issue 155,500 shares at EUR 13,00/share. New shares are issued at a 19% premium to Friday’s XETRA closing price. With the acquisitions of the majority stake, beaconsmind has full access to cash flows and will consolidate all FREDERIX financials going forward. FREDERIX is financially well managed and remained cash flow positive throughout the pandemic with no debt on its balance sheet.
On a proforma basis beaconsmind will more than double its current run-rate revenues from a range of EUR 2.0 – EUR 2.5 MM to around EUR 5.5 – EUR 6.0 MM through the acquisition and will accelerate its path to profitability with an expected breakeven by year mid-2023 and strong profitability thereafter. The new management team expects combined cost synergies of at least EUR 0.3MM on top of the current EUR 0.5MM run-rate EBITDA of FREDERIX with significant growth ahead.
Explanatory part
With FREDERIX CloudWiFi Analytics, it further allows you to create, evaluate, and compare usage statistics across and within locations, helping companies to understand their customers better. The flexible WLAN solutions are offered for various industries, including Education, Healthcare, Cities & Communities, Retail, Hospitality and Public Transport. The company employs more than 20 people and is headquartered in Hannover, Germany. FREDERIX has a strong portfolio of clients including the flagship hotspot account for global retailer Lidl. Through this transformative acquisition beaconsmind will extend its value chain and diversify its customer and revenue base massively. In future retail clients will have access to both, technology and solutions for the adjacent Bluetooth-Low-Energy and hotspot WiFi further offering data management and feedback. The offering will be enhanced by eKomi’s review platform offering end-to-end solutions for B2B customers.
Through the transaction, eKomi Holding GmbH, one of the key shareholders of FREDERIX and one of the leading review companies in Europe, will become a strategic shareholder in beaconsmind. Michael Ambros, Founder and CEO will be appointed to the board to beaconsmind as Deputy Chairman and support the value chain of review, data management and further expansion of the newly established vertical.
The current CEO and major shareholder of FREDERIX Jonathan Sauppe, will become a shareholder in beaconsmind with a long-term commitment to build out the new hotspot Wifi vertical for beaconsmind as CEO of the newly established hotspot vertical.
Max Weiland, Founder and CEO of beaconsmind: “The acquisition of FREDERIX is an exciting transformative event for our platform on multiple levels: I am excited to welcome a new leadership team around Jonathan Sauppe and Michael Ambros to our beaconsmind leadership family. We can extend our product offering from LBM into the adjacent hotspot space and will be offering an even broader value chain to our clients. Finally, FREDERIX has excellent complementary customers we will soon be offering with eKomi a full value chain offering including review. The addition of industry veteran Michael Ambros to our board as strategic investor is another stepstone in our beaconsmind platform.”
Jonathan Sauppe, CEO of FREDERIX: “We are very excited to join beaconsmind as a new vertical within this exciting group. FREDERIX has enormous growth opportunities within this global platform, and we are already implementing the extended product offering for some of our key clients on a combined basis. I am particularly thankful to be joining the beaconsmind executive board and driving the growth within the hotspot vertical together with Max as a partner.”
Michael Ambros, Founder and CEO of eKomi: “eKomi has been looking to expand coherent B2B solutions from our current review and email signature platform to Point-of-Sales offering. Being able to join both, FREDERIX and beaconsmind as a shareholder and board member to jointly grow this vertical is truly exciting and we are looking forward to implementing more rollups together.”
A presentation on the acquisition including financials is available on the webpage www.beaconsmind.com/investor-relations/. A management call on the combination and introduction of the broadened leadership team will be held on Tuesday, November 22nd 15:00CET. Please register under https://webcast.meetyoo.de/reg/INgpW6EAjaaj or use the dial-in number +49 89 244 18 44 36.
About beaconsmind
Founded in 2015 in Switzerland, beaconsmind AG is a pioneer in the field of location-based marketing (LBM) software for retail chains. By fitting stores with Bluetooth beacons that precisely locate and identify customers, and by integrating its Software Suite, beaconsmind opens a brand-new channel for retailers to interact with their customers. Thanks to its solution, retailers can converge digital and physical shopping and address the convenience gaps of each. The shares of the company (ISIN: CH0451123589 – Ticker: 81D) are listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange with XETRA trading and on Euronext in Paris.. For more information, please visit www.beaconsmind.com
About FREDERIX
FREDERIX is a Hannover, Germany, based provider for corporate Wifi solutions (FREDERIX Hotspot) and a developer of smart, cloud-based W-LAN hotspot technologies (FREDERIX Cloud Wifi) with Lidl global account as a major customer. The company offers products that help the clients in the networking, control and monitoring of WLAN networks, enabling them to gain new insights, new contact points with their customers and real added value for both.
About eKomi
eKomi Holdings with its group companies, affiliates and partners is Europe’s premiere & largest independent provider of transaction-based reviews & ratings with specialist expertise in intelligent feedback systems in social commerce and customer evaluation for businesses operating across a wide range of sectors. Headquartered in Berlin, eKomi has offices in Amsterdam, Auckland, Berlin, Brisbane, Cape Town, Dubai, Hannover, Kyiv, Lahore, Lisbon, London, Los Angeles and Madrid while cooperating with an extensive network of partners around the globe.
Contacts
Beaconsmind
Max Weiland, Founder & CEO
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Tel.: +41 44 380 73-73
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edicto GmbH, Frankfurt (Germany)
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NewCap
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Investor Relations / Strategic Communication
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