HEWLETT Packard has completed the sale of its 18 per cent stake in Perth-based IT outsourcing firm ASG Group for $3.8 million.
HP sold 11.85 million ASG shares for 32 cents a share, which were placed with institutional investors by Tolhurst Noall.
ASG chief executive Geoff Lewis said the commercial relationship between ASG and HP, which involved joint tendering and multi-year contracts, would be unaffected by the transaction.
He said HP inherited the 18 per cent stake following its takeover of Compaq, which had bought into the business in February 2001 to establish a WA presence.
Mr Lewis said the institutional investors had strengthened the company’s register and would improve stock liquidity.
ASG was continuing expansion plans on the east coast, he said, and was currently on the lookout for potential acquisition targets.
Mr Lewis said the company would continue to tap in to the selective IT sourcing space – where larger organisations outsource parts of their IT requirements often to different contractors.
“We’ve already got more than a third of our revenue and people on the east coast,” he said. “We are going to look into both organic and acquisitive growth. We are forecasting $27 million in this year.”
Mr Lewis said the company had recently employed services and sales staff in Sydney and Melbourne, including Jega Rajan as chief sales and marketing officer. Mr Rajan had previously been HP’s director of sales, South Pacific.
ASG employs about 250 staff across Australia in offices in Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Brisbane following a recent acquisition.
The company completed a backdoor listing via Melbourne-based IT security firm eSec last July, however ASG’s original plan, back in 2001, was for an IPO.
A prospectus was prepared but tough market conditions prevailed.
The blow was softened by global IT giant Compaq’s decision to invest $3.1 million in the company in return for an 18 per cent shareholding.
In January this year, ASG acquired Oracle solutions and services company ASSIST Pty Ltd.
The purchase price of ASSIST was performance based and was to be paid over two years. Dependent on the company meeting defined criteria, a company announcement indicated the purchase price to be $4 million.
