Incadea directors increase stakes

Incadea, a provider of software solutions and services to the automotive dealership industry, got off to a fast start on its first day of trading, before ending the day barely ahead of its flotation price.

The group made its debut on AIM on Friday, May 25th, with the shares closing at 76p after peaking at 79.9p early on.

The stock came to the market after raising €17m (around £13.6m) from a placing of 18.2m shares at 75p each. The placing price values the entire issued share capital of Incadea at €47m (about £37.7m).

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Some of the directors followed the principle of putting "your money where your mouth is" by subscribing for shares in the placing, with the aggregate purchases from board members amounting to 0.14m shares. No directors offloaded any shares in the flotation, as sometimes happens with initial public offerings.

The net proceeds of the placing will be used to fund working capital and expansion into new geographic markets, to invest in group infrastructure and to reduce the company's net debt.

Some or all of the money may be used to finance acquisitions to strengthen the company's business in in key geographies where it currently relies on partnership arrangements.

Founded in 2000 and headquartered in Munich, the company has relationships with the car industry's major multi-national car manufacturers, such as BMW Group and Volkswagen.

In 2011 the Incadea group reported revenue of €19.6m and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of €3.1m.

Somewhat unusually for a smallish technology firm new to the market, the company intends to announce a dividend when it unveils its 2012 results.

The company's believes it has market leading technology, with a significant proportion of it proprietary software, which runs on Microsoft enterprise technologies. As a result, Incadea can deploy its solutions globally, rapidly and cost-effectively, the company said.

Cenkos is acting as Nominated Adviser (Nomad) and broker to the company.

JH