SYDNEY: IVE Group Limited has entered into an agreement to acquire Salmat Marketing Solutions, the Australian catalogue distribution business of Salmat Limited for $25 million.

The transaction includes the acquisition of Reach Media NZ Limited (Reach Media), Salmat’s catalogue distribution business in New Zealand. Marketing Solutions and Reach Media will form part of IVE’s extensive production and distribution offering and will continue to operate as standalone businesses.

The acquisition will be bolstered further by a $25-30 million capital investment program to automate the Marketing Solutions catalogue collation process prior to letterbox delivery for the existing 12,000 strong national (Australian) walker network.

The agreement is subject to the satisfaction of customary conditions and is scheduled to complete on January 1, 2020. The acquisition is expected to be accretive to EPS in FY20.

IVE CEO Matt Aitken said “these acquisitions complete the final phase of our strategic roadmap over recent years to further expand and strengthen our offer to the retail sector. The combination of Australia’s largest letterbox distribution business with IVE’s broader print, data analytics and marketing services offer provides an exciting opportunity for our clients to enhance returns on their marketing spend through our highly integrated offer. Importantly, the significant capital expenditure program over the next 18 months to automate catalogue collation will support the ongoing sustainability of the national walker network resulting in a strong distribution channel delivering improved ROI for IVE’s retail clients.”