StaffPlan Limited

Meta Corporate Finance today announces the sale of StaffPlan Limited to Advanced Computer Software Plc (AIM:ASW, “ACS”) for a consideration of £1.36m in a cash and share deal.  StaffPlan is the market leader in its field; the provision of rostering, workforce management, administration, monitoring and point of care software solutions in the domiciliary and homecare space.  The acquisition represents ACS’s third in the last year.

Mark Chapman, the Company’s sole shareholder and Managing Director commented “I engaged Meta when I was in preliminary negotiations with Vin Murria at ACS.  I recognised I would benefit from their transactional expertise as well as the additional niche Healthcare experience tabled by the Meta team.  Meta helped me to select and manage my team of legal (Vertex Law LLP) and accounting and tax advisers (Zenon Transaction Services Ltd), and facilitated discussions and negotiations with ACS. Meta and my wider advisory team helped progress the deal from Heads of Agreement through to Completion in an extremely tight three-week time frame.”

Meta Director, Mark Ledger-Beadell commented “Mark Chapman is representative of a number of business owners in the wider health and social care IT space – he has developed an innovative product range which has the potential to improve the way Healthcare is provided and administered, but at its current size and scale, StaffPlan lacks access to market.  The acquisition provides obvious synergies with ACS’s current product range and becoming part of ACS will give the Company the opportunity to make a greater difference.”

StaffPlan, established in 2000, has a proven product base of software products which vastly improve efficiency and workflow management, currently in the domiciliary and homecare space.  In the year ended March 2009, the Company had revenue of circa £1.48m, £0.07m profit before tax, and cash of £0.1m.  Its customer base includes 30 local authorities and a number of major independent providers of nursing and homecare services.  Its four current products are delivered as hosted applications in a Software as a Service (SaaS) model including:

• Roster, an advanced scheduling and administration solution, designed specifically for community care providers;
• Monitor, which actively records service-user contact time ensuring accurate and timely invoice and payroll processing;
• On Call, a browser-based interface enabling live mobile access from a PDA or smart-phone; and
• Connect, its newest product which has further potential to improve efficiency amongst community teams; delivering real-time information to - and capturing data at - the point of care via an HFC-enabled mobile device.

On current activity in the healthcare IT market, Mark Ledger-Beadell added “in light of  changing government policy on healthcare IT and the impending demise of the NPfIT agenda, attention has re-focused on ‘best-of-breed’ solution providers.  There are a number of publicly listed and private equity backed consolidators in the market who are all looking to unite smaller providers to give greater scale.”

He continued “Meta has extensive experience of transacting and advising the shareholders of companies in the healthcare IT space, having transacted in the past with iSoft as well as advising the shareholders of Adastra for the five years leading up to their acquisition by ACS. We have also now teamed up with Adrian Gilson, former Managing Director of Adastra Software and are confident that our knowledge and understanding of the healthcare IT market means Meta is the best placed boutique corporate finance adviser to counsel shareholders considering a disposal, or currently under offer to maximise shareholder value.”

ACS Regulatory News Service Statement

Read more about Meta's Healthcare and Public Sector specialism 

Advisers to the shareholder of StaffPlan Limited

• Corporate Finance: Mark Ledger-Beadell and James Lawson, Meta Corporate Finance Limited
• Legal: Nick Austen and Irfan Baluch, Vertex Law LLP
• Accounting and Tax: Richard Price and Lesley Carrington, Zenon Transaction Services Limited

Advisers to Advanced Computer Software Plc

• Legal: Karma Samdup and John O’Connor, CMS Cameron McKenna LLP
• Internal: Mark Butt

 

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