St Ives Buys Digital Agency Realise for £21.7m

UK marketing services and print group St. Ives Plc, which owns consumer research specialist Incite, has acquired digital marketing agency Realise in a £21.7m cash and shares deal.

Established in 1995 in Edinburgh and central London, Realise offers a wide range of services including planning and research, user experience testing and measurement, digital and content strategy, innovation and brand development. The firm employs around 96 staff, and for the financial year ended 30th September 2012, generated EBITDA of £1.7m on revenue of £9.7m.

St Ives - which in addition to market research agency Incite also owns retail and consumer consultancy Pragma - will buy Realise for £18.4m in cash and approximately 1.7 million of its own shares. Further consideration of up to £18.3m may be payable dependent on financial performance over the next two years.

Following the deal, Realise will operate as a subsidiary of St. Ives and will continue to be managed from its current locations by its existing management team, which includes the vendors Tony Murphy and Andy Lamond.

St Ives CEO Patrick Martell (pictured) comments: 'Realise complements our integrated offering in the market - a combination of insight led innovation and trusted execution across digital and physical media. I am delighted to welcome the Realise team to the group and look forward to supporting their growth plans.'

Web site: www.st-ives.co.uk .