Mobile commerce and marketing solutions provider Affle (India) Ltd has signed definitive agreements to fully acquire Appnext Pte. Ltd (Appnext Singapore), Singapore-based application discovery and recommendation platform.
Affle, through a subsidiary, has agreed to initially acquire a 66.67% equity stake in Appnext Singapore for $17.25 million (Rs 130.17 crore). This includes the full acquisition of the company’s technological intellectual property assets, as per the stock-exchange filing.
The remaining stake will be bought after Appnext achieves mutually agreed growth targets, it added.
Anuj Khanna Sohum, chairman and CEO at Affle, said the acquisition will help the company solidify leadership position in India and enhance its competitive presence abroad.
“The platform transforms ads into app recommendations as a service for consumers and thus strengthens our CPCU [cost per converted user], business model, by enabling greater ROI [return on investment] for advertisers,” Sohum said in a statement.
Separately, Appnext founder Elad Natanson said India and Southeast Asian regions represented the biggest markets for the company, and that the acquisition would help it strengthen its position there.
Appnext integrates its technology with both original equipment manufacturers’ (OEMs) handsets and app developers’ products, allowing it to deliver intelligence on consumer engagement and transactions. It also delivers contextual mobile advertising and recommendations.
Appnext Singapore was incorporated in March this year, with its mobile discovery platform, advertising and monetisation businesses being transferred from Appnext BVI, the filing added.
Affle (India) Ltd itself reported consolidated net sales of Rs 333.78 crore for the 2019-20 financial year, with profit-after-tax figures of Rs 65.51 crore for the same period. Shares of the company were trading 3.87% up at Rs 1,538.85 apiece at the time of writing this report.
The company listed itself on the stock markets in August last year, with its shares opening at a 25% premium to the issue price. The IPO of 3.37 million shares — excluding the anchor allotment — was subscribed 86.5 times. This was the best investor turnout in an IPO in more than one-and-a-half years, at the time.
Investors in Affle have included Microsoft and Times Internet Ltd. In June last year, the company acquired the platform and business interests of US-based mobile marketing company RevX Inc.
To find out more about the prospects for mergers and acquisitions in India, join the second edition of VCCircle’s Mergers & Acquisitions Summit 2020, a digital event, on June 26.
