Nov 2, 2020

CentralNic also said the acquisition removed a leading competitor to its Team Internet business while “substantially increasing” its market share in the monetisation sector while also broadening its network of domain investor customers, monetisation partners and publishers. "We are delighted to have completed the acquisition of Codewise so rapidly. This earnings-enhancing acquisition will greatly complement our existing, fast-growing monetisation business, while providing numerous opportunities for revenue and cost synergies. We will now begin the integration of Codewise with CentralNic and the cross-selling of products across the respective customer bases", CentralNic chief executive Ben Crawford said in a statement. In a separate announcement, the company said it will publish an interim report for its third quarter on November 30, as required under the terms of its senior secured bond listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange in Norway. The company confirmed that at this time it “continues to trade in line with market expectations” for the year ending December 31, 2020. "We embrace this requirement of the Oslo Stock Exchange as an EU regulated market as an opportunity to augment the cadence and timeliness of our financial reporting for the benefit of both debt and equity capital markets", Crawford said. In a third release, CentralNic added that it has issued additional consideration shares relating to the performance of KeyDrive SA, which it acquired in August 2018. The company said KeyDrive has “performed well against its highly ambitious targets” and, as a result, US$2.2mln of additional consideration attributable to objectives for the 2019 financial year is payable to Inter.Services GmbH. Around 15% of the additional consideration will be settled in cash, with the remainder to be settled by issuing 1.69mln additional shares. "We have been delighted with the performance of KeyDrive ever since its acquisition over two years ago. This is an enduring testament to CentralNic's ongoing successful acquisition strategy and ability to expertly and efficiently integrate businesses", Crawford said. CentralNic shares surged 6.7% to 78.7p in early trading on Monday. --Adds share price--