Yotta Surveying Cattaneo Corporate

Cattaneo, the Birmingham-based corporate finance advisory business, has advised Oxford Metrics plc (LSE: OMG), on the sale of Leamington Spa-based Yotta Surveying to Ginger Group of France. Yotta Surveying provides highways surveying services to government agencies, local government and major infrastructure contractors. The business will immediately trade as Ginger Lehmann in the UK but will continue to operate from its existing premises with all staff remaining with the business.

Having retained Cattaneo to conduct a full marketing process on an international basis, Oxford Metrics, the international software company servicing government, life sciences, entertainment and engineering markets, announced its intention to divest Yotta Surveying last year. The acquisition by Ginger Group strengthens the combined business whose amalgamated resources and expertise will enable it to continue to provide amongst the highest quality services in the market.

Ginger Group is a major player in the construction and civil engineering market. Its surveying business, Ginger Lehmann, is the pan-European leader in road condition surveys, operating in Germany, Poland, France and now the UK with 200 employees and a large fleet of measurement vehicles providing state of the art measurement technologies and data analysis.

Following the disposal, Oxford Metrics continues to retain ownership of Yotta Limited, its software and services business which includes the Alloy, Horizons, Mayrise and March software products, and will work in close partnership with Ginger Lehmann to ensure a smooth transition and continued access to its software, consultancy and analysis services.

Commenting on the disposal Nick Bolton, Chief Executive Officer of Oxford Metrics, said:

“I am pleased to have completed this process, with an outcome that works well for everyone. We know that in Ginger Group, the surveying business has a strong, committed new owner and that our surveying team joins a bigger organisation capable of nurturing and growing these assets. For Oxford Metrics’ shareholders, we take one further step along our 5 year plan and move forward as an increasingly dependable, recurring revenue based business.”

Martyn Pilley of Cattaneo said:

“This is the second non-core divestment we have completed in a matter of weeks, in this case working closely with our client over an extended timescale while we worked through separation issues and prepared pro-forma financial data that allowed for an overseas buyer to enter the UK market. We are delighted to have achieved a successful outcome for Oxford Metrics and Yotta Surveying.”