Solteq Acquires inPulse Works Oy

Solteq Plc has acquired inPulse Works Oy. The acquisition will enable Solteq to offer services that meet the varying needs of electricity, district heating and water companies. The acquisition will also strengthen Solteq’s current BI and analytics expertise and open new opportunities in the sector-independent BI and analytics market. inPulse Works Oy’s products and services digitalise customer engagement and business processes. The company offers its clients digital services related to the customer interface, invoicing and customer data systems, electricity sales management systems, and BI and analytics solutions.

The acquisition is in line with the strategy revision that Solteq announced in its first interim report for 2017. In accordance with its strategy, Solteq will expand its operations to sectors in which digital disruption is shaking the foundations.
Two growth-oriented companies find each other

inPulse Works Oy’s business relies on two cornerstones. On the one hand, the company operates in the utilities sector with focus on customer experience and digitalisation of business processes with its own service and product solutions and customer-specific implementations. The second cornerstone is BI and analytics solutions, which are sector-independent. The implementations are based on Microsoft products and solutions.

– Many aspects in Solteq’s and inPulse’s operations and offerings fell perfectly into place. In our first interim report, we stated that, in addition to commerce, we would also expand our presence in other sectors that are being shaken by digital disruption. The utilities sector is a good example. As is widely known, the utilities sector is undergoing rapid digitalisation, and recovery of data becomes crucial for the industry. In this game, we have plenty of opportunities to take with our clients, Solteq’s CEO Olli Väätäinen states.

– We also realised that our areas of expertise complement each other. Earlier this year, we strengthened our analytics offering by acquiring a majority holding of Analyteq Oy, a company specialising in inventory replenishment and analytics services. inPulse’s BI and analytics know-how will naturally add our analytics expertise. As demand for analytics services has exceeded our expectations, this addition is most welcome. Besides, we also have a strong Microsoft background, Olli Väätäinen continues.

– inPulse has always been an innovatively forward-looking, growth-oriented company. This merger will allow us to be part of the growth story of a larger company in a sector that is new to it and to add to client stories with our BI and analytics expertise. We will also be able to serve our clients better through the new total offering. Our contribution to Solteq is new kind of expertise, but the merger will also offer our personnel growth paths to roles that a large company can offer, inPulse Works Oy’s CEO Juha Rokkanen says.

inPulse Works Oy’s specialist organisation of 60 experts operates nationwide with offices in Jyväskylä, Kuopio and Seinäjoki.

Purchase price, payment and financing

The debt-free purchase price of inPulse Oy’s shares is 3.5 million euro. Based on the authorisation granted to the Board of Directors by the Annual General Meeting on 17 March 2017, 1.0 million euro of the purchase price of the shares will be paid with Solteq’s new shares and the remainder with existing cash assets. The subscription price of the shares is 1.63 euro per share, determined on the basis of the volume-weighted average price of the share during the period of 1 May to 31 May 2017. A total of 613 thousand new shares will be issued to pay the purchase price. The number of shares in the issue represents about 3.3% of the number of shares after the share issue.