Bittnet Group acquires a majority stake in ITPrepared for 2.8 million lei
Bucharest, 6 August 2021 – Bittnet (BNET), a group of IT companies listed on the Main Market of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, announces the signing of new investment in ITPrepared, an advisory and implementation partner for digital enablement and disruption through technology. Following the conclusion of the transaction, Bittnet Group holds a majority stake of 50.2% in ITPrepared.
“We are happy to announce the closing of the transaction with ITPrepared, thus finalizing the round of investments approved by our shareholders at the end of 2020. ITPrepared brings a new and important addition to Bittnet Group – recurrent services business model. Through our past transactions, we have focused on diversifying Bittnet’s geographical presence or portfolio of products and services. With the acquisition of ITPrepared, our first transaction in managed services, we diversify the model in which we serve the client. We see much potential in the IT Managed Services niche. Considering the global shift to digitalization as well as the synergies within our Group, we believe ITPrepared will thrive in the next years,” stated Mihai Logofatu, CEO at Bittnet Group.
The value of the transaction amounts to 673,200 dollars (2.8 million lei). The sum will be paid with a mix of cash, in the total amount of 265,000 dollars, and Bittnet shares, amounting to 408,000 dollars. Following the signing of the agreement, Bittnet Group holds 50.2% stake in ITPrepared, and the founders own the remaining stake – 24.9% is held by Alexandru Ana, Managing Partner and COO, and 24.9% by Valeriu Ghihanis, Managing Partner and Global Leader, Digitalization. Bittnet’s shareholders approved the investment in ITPrepared at the General Shareholders Meeting from 26th of November 2020.
ITPrepared is a managed services company that provides IT support services primarily on the US market. The company was founded in 2016, and today it has over 50 employees and technical experts working in offices in Bucharest, Iasi, Dubai and New York. The portfolio of ITPrepared clients is primarily based on US companies, but it also has a number of local clients from Romania. For 2021, the company estimates a turnover of 1 million dollars, coming primarily from recurrent contracts with foreign clients.
Following the signing of the acquisition contract, ITPrepared will be integrated into the technology division of Bittnet Group. Integration of ITPrepared together with other companies from the technology division, especially Dendrio, offers a lot of synergies at the level of the Group. Services delivered by ITPrepared are based on technologies provided by prominent technology vendors such as Cisco, Microsoft and VMWare, that are also covered by Dendrio Solutions, thus offering significant cross-selling potential.
the practice of outsourcing the responsibility for maintaining, and anticipating the need for, a range of processes and functions in order to improve operations and cut expenses. In the IT&C sector, the most common managed services evolve around connectivity and bandwidth, network monitoring, security, and disaster recovery. Beyond traditional application and infrastructure management, managed services can also include storage, desktop and communications, mobility, help desk, and technical support.
According to Fortune Business Insights, the global managed services market is predicted to reach USD 492.15 billion by 2027, a significant increase from USD 200.29 billion registered in 2019. The growth is expected to be fueled by the growing implementation of IT services across all sectors of activity to improve business processes, enhance security and efficiency through automation.
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About Bittnet Group
Bittnet was founded in 2007 in Bucharest, by brothers Mihai and Cristian Logofătu, as a company offering IT training and IT solutions in Romania and abroad. Today, Bittnet is a Group of companies in the IT field of which the following brands are part: Bittnet Training, Dendrio, ELIAN Solutions, Equatorial Gaming, the eLearning Company and Softbinator. Bittnet Training is the leader of the IT training market in Romania, with over 15 years of experience and the largest team of IT trainers in Romania. Equatorial is a game-based learning company specialized n providing transformative training and consulting programs at the individual, team and organizational levels in Romania and abroad. Dendrio is the only multi-cloud integrator in Romania, consolidating its position as a company certified by the most important IT providers globally, focusing on cloud security and cybersecurity. Elian Solutions specializes in providing Microsoft Dynamics NAV Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation services.
Bittnet Group is listed on the Main Market of the Bucharest Stock Exchange under the BNET symbol. As of March 22, 2021, BNET shares are included in two global indices: FTSE Global Micro-Cap and FTSE Total-Cap.