8.9 million acquisition for Bond International Software

Bond International Software announced today that the Company had acquired Gowi Group Plc for 8.9m. Gowi is a privately owned organisation which was established in 2001. It employs over 140 people in five locations around the UK, with a customer base of more than 850 companies and an estimated turnover of more than 8.5m. This is Bond’s largest acquisition to date and the existing management will stay on to run the business.

The purchase of Gowi fits perfectly with Bond’s stated strategy of acquiring businesses in similar and related industries. It is a growing force in its market and through a number of targeted acquisitions it delivers a focused and dedicated range of solutions that are market leaders in Human Resources, Payroll and Recruitment applications - particularly in the public sector, education and publishing.

We have previously said that our strategy is to increase our presence in the wider Human Capital Management arena by a combination of software development and acquisition explains Steve Russell, CEO of Bond International Software. Gowi has significant presence in the HR software market and our combined product ranges will significantly improve the scope and capabilities of the portfolio that we can offer to our customers around the world. In particular, with the Gowi payroll products, Bond will now be able to offer a totally integrated front to back office solution.

Mike Smart, Group CEO at Gowi, adds: The merger with Bond will enable Gowi to accelerate our growth plans. Through their international network, we can access customers on a global scale and take advantage of shared skills in product development, process mapping and customer support.

Steve Russell continues: We will combine the Recruitment, HR and Payroll systems into integrated solutions that deliver tangible efficiency improvements and bottom-line benefits. When these are joined with Bond’s advanced developments in multi-lingual and multi-character set technologies, customers can confidently embrace the challenges of the global marketplace - whatever the size of their organisation and wherever they might be located.

Together Bond and Gowi will combine people, skills, solutions and infrastructure to deliver excellence at every level.

www.bond-adapt.com
www.gowigroup.co.uk