Icecat acquires e-commerce integrator Iceshop for 3.1 million euro

Amsterdam, The Netherlands, December 28, 2016: Icecat and iMerge reached an agreement about the take-over of webshop integrator Iceshop by Icecat. The transaction sum is 3.1 million euro, which will be paid to iMerge in the form of 310,000 depositary receipts of shares Icecat via NPEX conforming Icecat’s prospectus of November 2, 2016. No additional depositary receipts of shares will be issued other than the 1 million as described in the prospectus. The transactions are likely to be approved by the general meeting of shareholders of Icecat by January 10, 2017, as the votes already have been cast, and the representative of iMerge will abstain from voting because of a conflict of interest. The closing of the take-over will be planned within four weeks after the expected listing of Icecat at NPEX by February 17, after which Iceshop will be a 100% daughter company of Icecat.

Iceshop is a specialized developer of the open source webshop platform Batavi, provides product information management software, integrates Icecat product data in popular webshop solutions such as Magento and Prestashop, and provides order management services. There is a strong synergy with Icecat, as both companies provide services to the ecommerce market and are agency of each other’s services. Iceshop had revenues of 630,000 euro in 2016. Since 2014, the revenues have expanded by 39% and the average EBT over the past three years was 120,000 euro. “By fully integrating Iceshop services within Icecat, we can more aggressively focus on the provision of Iceshop services to the global network of Icecat customers”, explains managing director Emre Tan Altinok of Icecat, who negotiated the deal on behalf of Icecat. “As soon as we can consolidate the numbers of Iceshop, this acquisition will generate an extra revenue impulse as well.”
Erik Snijders participated on behalf of the minority shareholders in the negotiations.

The take-over of Iceshop is in line with the ongoing Icecat’s acquisition policy as described in the prospectus, to expand fast by synergetic acquisitions.

About Icecat NV
Icecat NV, which has recently announced its IPO, is a global publisher and syndicator of product information for the e-commerce market. Icecat NV, founded in 2009, works with  some 50,000 webshops and hundreds of brands such as Philips, Sony, Samsung, HP, P&G, L’Oréal.

Icecat includes the subsidiaries Icecat LLC (Icecat Ukraine) and Icecat Content Sourcing OÜ (Icecat Estonia), and participation Hatch B.V. The cost centers Icecat Ukraine and Icecat Estonia are responsible for hiring editor and software developer capacity. Hatch BV (formerly Iceleads) delivers smart “Buy Now” buttons that help manufacturers to turn their websites into measurable lead generators for their online retailers.

About iMerge BV

iMerge is active since 1999 as e-business incubator. iMerge and her holding Netvalue participate in a number of international ventures in the areas of ecommerce, marketing and software development. Current participations include the global publisher of product information Icecat NV, reviews publisher Testseek, software developer bintime, and marketing consultant Vondel Marketing. iMerge was founded by Martijn Hoogeveen.

More information on Icecat’s IPO:
Brochure & Prospectus: https://www.npex.nl/effectenbeurs/icecat/