Italian group ITway has signed an exclusive agreement with Swedish company Cognosec to sell its Turkish and Greek cyber security VAD businesses. ITway has signed Heads of Terms of Agreement related to the proposed sale to Cognosec of 100% of the shares in ITway Hellas and ITway Türkiye with aggregate revenues in 2017 of €26m and EBITDA of €1.95m. The total consideration payable by Cognosec for the transaction will be €10m and will consist of €2m in cash and the balance being made up of €8m in Cognosec new issue shares.
The sale by ITway of its Value Added Distribution (VAD) businesses in Greece and Turkey completes their divestment programme of their VAD businesses. The Greek business, headquartered in Halandri, Athens, is the sole distributor for market-leading cyber brands including Check Point, RSA & McAfee and generated around 30% of the combined businesses’ revenues in the last financial year. The Turkish business, headquartered in Istanbul, generate around 70% of the combined businesses’ revenues and counts CyberArk, Algosec and Rapid7 amongst its sole distributor relationships. Between them, the businesses employ 23 full time personnel. Both organisations have evinced strong growth records in their respective geography and are both profitable and balance sheet positive.
Andrea Farina, the Chairman and CEO of ITway, commented: ”we are excited to be part of Cognosec whole strategy of Kobus Paulsen to become a leader in Cybersecurity market. We will join our deep knowledge of this market built in more than 25 years, being part of top management team, with the growth strategy and the financial capability of Cognosec and the importance to be listed at Nasdaq.“