Jeeves acquires company in Norway

ERP system supplier Jeeves has signed a letter of intent on May 14 regarding the acquisition of all shares in the Norwegian company Logistikk-og-IT Partner A/S (LogIT Gruppen). The deal is an important step in Jeeves’ growth strategy and means that the company strengthens its position on the Norwegian market.

The Norwegian company LogIT Gruppen owns, develops and sells ERP systems with the emphasis on small and midsize companies on the Norwegian market. The company’s own ERP system Lösning1 has around 100 customers, mainly within the trade sector. A related consultancy is run alongside the ERP system. In 2007, LogIT Gruppen had a turnover of 30 MNOK and the number of employees was 20. The company has offices in Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim and Molde.

The Norwegian market for small and midsize companies is interesting. According to Proff/Norge, there are around 37.000 limited companies in the 10-999 employee segment, which is around 75% of the number of corresponding companies in Sweden, according to UC Sverige. The bottom part of the segment with 10-49 employees is even a bit larger than the Swedish market.

Moving our position forward on the Norwegian market is an important step towards reaching our growth objectives, says Bengt-Åke Älgevik, CEO Jeeves. The acquisition gives us a strong base for new sales, but we also have around 50 existing customers in Norway that we now have a better opportunity to develop together with our partners.

For LogIT Gruppen, the acquisition means that they now better can meet the customer's requirements, among other things.

We see great advantages with Jeeves as the owner. Together with Jeeves we get a better chance to further develop our business, short term as well as long term, says Tore Husby, CEO at LogIT Gruppen. To be able to offer our customers Jeeves' modern ERP systems that can easily be adopted to suit their specific needs are important factors in our decision. Jeeves’ flexibility and low cost of ownership will be attractive to our customers and the Norwegian market.

The acquisition process, including due diligence, is expected to be completed at the end of May and the beginning of June. A performed acquisition is estimated to increase Jeeves’ annual turnover with around 35 MSEK and have a positive effect on earnings per share.