The “parent” company, which just posted a $1.7m loss in its half-year results, has been sold to an unnamed UK buyer, paving the way to rebrand the remaining PM business under the Moore banner.
Argus said in a statement to the ASX that it would expand the Moore unit because “the group does not have the capital available to unlock the commercial value of the Argus business”.
Managing director David Glavonjic, who had been chief executive of Moore Business Systems before the Argus deal, told ProPrint he had initially been looking to run the two companies as a merged entity.
Moore, which has a turnover of around $70m, was acquired by $2m-turnover Argus in early January. Glavonjic has explained that deal was essentially a way for Moore to get a “backdoor listing” and acquire capital to expand the business.
He said after the “dust had settled” on the January merger, it made more sense to invest solely in the Moore business.
“We didn’t raise as much capital as were able to. We were looking at between three and six [million]. We raised $4.2m, and we had an offer on the table [for Argus],” he added.
“We had the opportunity to consider where best to invest our working capital and we thought the interests of the shareholders would be better served by focusing on the core business and not investing further in the Argus business,” said Glavonjic.
The company said in a statement: “The board has decided to take advantage of an offer to divest the Argus assets. An agreement has been entered into with a UK group to sell the Argus assets for $1.357m, representing the book value as at 31 December 2009.”
The sale is expected to complete on 5 March.
Glavonjic said: “Argus is called Argus today, but I intend to change the name of Argus and we will probably go with Moore Business Systems as the name of the listed entity.”
He added that he would use the capital to expand the business and grow its customer base, said to include 250 of Australia’s top 500 companies.
The company claimed to have secured new contracts worth $3.5m “and has a strong pipeline of new business opportunities”.
Argus’ half-year results are for the period to 31 December 2009 and do not reflect the merged entity.
Before the ‘acquisition’ by Argus in January, the Moore Group was split into three businesses. The print management arm merged with Argus while Moore’s office products unit and its printing company remained private.
These two unlisted companies are unaffected by today’s announcement. Glavonjic added that Wodonga-based printer, Paragon, will remain as a key supplier to Moore’s print management business.
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