Moneysupermarket.com Financial Group Limited, a subsidiary of Moneysupermarket.com Group PLC (LON:MONY), has agreed to acquire 100% of the issued share capital of Maple Syrup Media Ltd (trading as Quidco), a leading consumer cashback business. The initial consideration is £87m in cash with a further £14m deferred. Quidco is being purchased from Maple Syrup Group Limited on a debt-free, cash-free basis.
Quidco is the second largest cashback business in the UK with around one million transacting users. It offers cashback at around 4,500 merchants including retail, travel and switching services.
Transaction highlights and strategic rationale:
The acquisition expands the Group in line with our purpose of helping households save money. The cashback market is growing and profitable, with significant headroom for further growth.
Quidco will benefit significantly from the Group’s capabilities. We are progressing well with our build of a leading data, marketing and tech platform that flexibly supports multiple, compelling brands. Quidco will benefit from key aspects of this platform, including data analytics, SEO expertise and upgraded customer relationship management, as well as an extension of our B2B offer into further channels. We expect Quidco users to benefit, over time, from improvements to the site and user experience.
The Group will benefit from adding a broad and leading cashback offer, providing an additional way for our users to save on even more products and services. Quidco enjoys strong engagement and transactional frequency, with users earning cashback on average eleven times in the last financial year. As with the Group’s successful acquisition of Decision Tech in 2018, we will seek in due course to expand and deploy Quidco capabilities into other Group brands.
The acquisition is expected to be earnings accretive in 2022. Quidco delivered revenue of £59.2m for the year ending 31 July 2021, with adjusted EBITDA growing significantly year on year to £7.9m.
Peter Duffy, CEO of Moneysupermarket Group, said:
“Moneysupermarket Group exists to help households save money. Today we’ve added a broad and compelling cashback offer. We welcome Quidco: a profitable, successful business, with strong consumer engagement and high growth potential.
We have experience of bringing complementary businesses into the Group and helping them thrive while sharing their capabilities more widely. Our growing stable of well-known and trusted consumer brands will provide households with an even more compelling savings offer. We look forward to working with Quidco to deliver this.”
Paul Nikkel, Founder & co-CEO of Quidco added:
“As an early pioneer of cashback, Quidco has continually innovated to bring more cashback to more members. We are excited to continue this journey within Moneysupermarket Group which opens up more opportunities and savings for members.”
