Acuity advises Ascertia on its sale to InfoCert

Tinexta S.p.A., a leading company in Digital Trust, Cybersecurity e-Business Innovation services, through its subsidiary InfoCert S.p.A., the largest Certification Authority in Europe, announces the signing of a binding agreement for the acquisition of 65% of the capital of Ascertia Limited.

Ascertia is a reference player in the Digital Trust market. Based in London (UK), Ascertia also operates in the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan. Recognized by Gartner as a reference player in the field of PKI (Public Key Infrastructure), infrastructures necessary to implement public key cryptography solutions to protect communications, authentication and the integrity of digital transactions. Ascertia also offers digital signature products that comply with eIDAS and ETSI standards.

Ascertia boasts among its customers central banks, government bodies, financial organisations, corporate and large enterprises. The company has also established a consolidated business relationship with major global partners, which represent an important accelerator of penetration into new geographies.

The transaction involves the purchase of 65% of Ascertia’s share capital for an Enterprise Value of Euro 28.2 million. The agreement also includes an Earn-out estimated at Euro 6.3 million, and a Put/Call on the remaining 35%. The total investment for 100% of the company is estimated at 37.7 million euros.

“The acquisition of Ascertia opens up significant opportunities – comments Danilo Cattaneo, CEO of InfoCert – Public Key Infrastructure systems are the basis of the services we already offer and, since they are conveyed in different countries on an international scale, they represent an acceleration element for a wider diffusion of our offer portfolio. In addition to the solid technological expertise, there is also a network of customers and international partners of primary importance and access to a research and development factory at particularly competitive costs”.

“This acquisition represents a fantastic opportunity for the two companies to capitalise on existing expertise and create new synergies,” said Liaquat Khan, CEO of Ascertia Limited. InfoCert specializes in digital trust services and business applications at Qualified level in Europe, Ascertia has built its reputation on solid and highly reliable PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) and digital signature products. Our global customers and partners will benefit from a fully integrated offering of digital trust solutions, including Common Criteria certified applications, PKI software and trusted business application, whether delivered on on-premises devices or servers, or on national cloud infrastructures or offered in global SaaS mode. A unique offering with global appeal.”

Rod Crook, Executive Director of Ascertia said:

“The Acuity team impressed us from day one with their knowledge of how a successful acquisitions process must be managed both internally and externally. Their expertise, effective support, encouragement and advice in driving shareholder value was excellent. We have an exciting opportunity for growth and success in front of us and Acuity played a vital role in making all this happen.”

David Copp, Director at Acuity said:

“The combination of Ascertia and InfoCert is an exciting development in the global Digital Trust space. We are delighted to have played a key role in bringing these two market leading businesses together and look forward to seeing Ascertia go from strength to strength.”

Andy Lister, Managing Partner at Acuity said:

“This sale again demonstrates our ability to sell high quality European SaaS businesses to leading international tech acquirors – we wish the Ascertia and InfoCert teams every success as they capitalise on the huge growth opportunity in the Digital Trust sector together.”