- Apax Partners made a £203m takeover bid last October for Kin & Carta
- Digital services provider Valtech exited in December with £239m deal
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Apax Partners is out of the race to buy Kin & Carta after a rival submitted a higher bid for the digital technology consultancy.
The private equity group made a £203m takeover offer last October for Kin & Carta, which advises companies on technology strategies, claiming it was “better positioned” to help drive the company’s growth.
It later increased the offer to £220.3 million in December, meaning investors would receive 120 pence per share compared to the previous proposal of 110 pence.
Takeover bid: Private equity group Apax Partners made a £203m takeover proposal last October for Kin & Carta, which advises companies on technology strategies.
Later that month, Valtech, a digital services provider whose largest shareholder is investment firm BC Partners, unveiled a 130p-a-share deal valuing the business at £239m.
Apax had until the end of negotiations on March 8 to submit a higher offer, but the company refused to budge, meaning its offer has now expired.
Founded in 1964 by future Labor leader Robert Gavron, Kin & Carta was initially a printing company called St Ives, named after the town where it was located.
Over the following decades it expanded to become Britain’s largest printer, producing company annual reports and popular magazines such as The Economist, Vogue and Time Out.
When Gavron stepped away from day-to-day management, St Ives had a market value in excess of £400m.
But during the 2000s, the group began to struggle as the publishing world moved online and print journalism suffered a significant drop in revenue.
After posting its first annual loss in 2009, the company began the transition to a more digital-focused operation when it acquired data and marketing business Occam.
St Ives exited the printing sector following the sale of its print management division to Paragon Group in 2018, the same year it was renamed Kin & Carta.
In its most recent annual results, the company blamed “macroeconomic challenges” leading to longer sales cycles and more cautious spending among customers for its revenue stagnating at £195.9m.
The company’s adjusted operating profits also declined by around 18 per cent to £18.5 million amid tougher trading conditions across the Americas.
Kin & Carta Actions They were down 0.3 per cent at 128.2p just after midday on Monday, although they have risen by around a quarter in the last 12 months.