Smartgroup continues its vehicle leasing roll-up
Fleet management and leasing specialist Smartgroup has made its second acquisition in a month, announcing yesterday that it had entered into an agreement to buy novated leasing and salary packaging administration company Selectus.Earlier this month Smartgroup announced the acquisition of another novated leasing company, Autopia.The Autopia deal was worth A$36 million and the latest acquisition will cost Smartgroup $119 million upfront and a further payment of up to $50 million if performance targets are met.Smartgroup is making a $49 million placement and raising $70 million of new debt to fund the acquisition. The debt will be sourced through a syndicated facility agreement, with ANZ and Westpac both in the syndicate.Selectus manages 13,000 vehicles across Australia and has a client base of 500 employers.Autopia manages 3000 vehicles and has 300 employer clients.Smartgroup had 34,000 novated leases under management at the end of last year.Smartgroup was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 2014 and since then has pursued an aggressive acquisition strategy, taking over a total of five companies.The company made a net profit of $29.1 million in the year to December. Its preferred measure of earnings is net profit after tax, adjusted to exclude non-cash tax affected amortisation of intangibles. NPATA was $25.4 million last year and the company said it was on track to report NPATA of $41.2 million to $43.2 million for the current year. It said Selectus would contribute about $3.5 million of NPATA in the December half and be earnings per share accretive. Autopia will contribute $1.2 million of NPATA.