Iress announces $170m equity raising, proposes OneVue acquisition

ASX-listed Iress today announced the launch of an equity raising to further strengthen its balance sheet, to provide flexibility to respond to opportunities in the current environment, and to partly fund the proposed acquisition of OneVue also announced today.

Iress is undertaking:

• a fully underwritten placement of $150 million to institutional and sophisticated investors; and
• a non-underwritten Share Purchase Plan to eligible shareholders targeting to raise approximately $20 million.

Andrew Walsh, chief executive, Iress said: “The proceeds from this equity raising will be partially used to fund the proposed acquisition of OneVue as well as to strengthen our balance sheet and provide flexibility and capacity to pursue further investment opportunities. While the acquisition was contemplated based on debt funding and could be achieved with available debt, we have decided to adopt a more conservative funding strategy given the current economic environment.

“Following the equity raising targeting $170 million and any successful acquisition of OneVue our net debt to Segment Profit (pro forma December 2019) would decrease to 0.92x. In the absence of this equity raising it 1 would have increased to 2.0x (pro forma December 2019), which is higher than we would be comfortable with in the current environment.”

Iress has entered into a agreement with OneVue under which Iress will acquire 100% of the outstanding shares of OneVue for $107 million.

Under the terms, OneVue shareholders will be entitled to receive consideration of $0.40 per share for their OneVue shares.

This represents a 67% premium to OneVue’s closing share price on 28 May 2020 and a 19% premium to OneVue’s 12-month VWAP.