Experian acquires FootFall for 35 million pounds |
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Thu, 05 Jan 2006 10:00
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LONDON: Experian, the financial services arm of retail group GUS Plc., is buying FootFall, the firm that monitors shopping activities on the high street, for 35 million pounds in cash. GUS is expected to spin off Experian as an independent unit shortly.
FootFall will form part of Experian's retail information businesses like Future Foundation and Goad. The unit had reported in November last a 36 per cent increase in its interim profit at 200.4 million pounds.
GUS is increasingly getting into financial information segment. It had in December divested its stake in clothes retailer Burberry and bought PriceGrabber.com, an online shopping website, for 273 million pounds. It had also spent some 600 million pounds in expanding Experian in 2005.
FootFall covers markets such as retail, property, leisure, airports and financial services and has operations in 11 countries besides Britain. It has about 70 employees.
FootFall was rumoured to be planning for a stock flotation after the high tech company was valued at around 30 million pounds.
The sale will bring a windfall to its staff members, own 40 per cent of the firm. Most of them were part of the group that set up the firm 10 years ago to analyse shopper numbers. Two major beneficiaries will be founders John Gallagher, now chief executive, and Brian Barnes, who left the company, but retained his stake. The remaining 60 per cent is held by venture capital firms Questor, New Media Spark, VCF and Matrix.
The company, with a turnover of 7.5 million pounds for the year ended March 2005 with 700,000 million in profits, has no debts. It has as its clients Marks & Spencer, Next and British Land
Gallagher is expected to continue with FootFall. He said the synergies are very exciting. "Experian data looks to the future, measuring where people live. We say what actually happens - how many came into the store."
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