What opportunity does Ideal see in Byte of Sp. Byzantium

By Matina Harkoftakis

Making good on a promise to make two more acquisitions by the end of this year, Ideal Holdings’ first hit came through its public offer to acquire all the shares of Byte Computers, which has been active in the technology industry for over 30 years.

As it became known, a share capital increase of up to 2,515,317 euros will be carried out with the issuance of up to 6,288,293 new common registered shares with a sale price of 4.15 euros each, while for the public proposal to take effect, Ideal, led by Lambros Papakonstantinou, seeks to receive at least 70% of Byte.

The process is expected to take about two months as it waits for the necessary approvals to be obtained before the public offering, which will take another 30 days to complete. Subsequently, the deletion of Byte’s shares from the board of the Greek stock exchange will be the last step of the transaction, marking a new era for the company of Spyridogeorgis Byzantiou, who currently holds a majority of 55.5% while the company has 13% participation by Alpha Bank and 5.5% by Alpha Asset Management.

Barrage of acquisitions for Ideal

This particular move by the Ideal group comes in addition to the deals that preceded it earlier this year and related to the acquisition of Netbull, which is active in the field of cyber security, and Coleus Packaging, a metal cap manufacturing industry in South Africa. Through the inclusion of Byte under its umbrella, the group is on the one hand expanding its footprint in the technology sector, completing another piece in the existing activities of Adaco and Netbull and on the other hand it is expected to take advantage of the opportunities from the wave of digitization , which is expected to intensify in the next period in our country, with the announcement of relevant projects in both the public and private sectors.

Byte claims government projects worth 50 million euros

In this part, Mr. Byzantiou’s company has a particularly active role, maintaining a backlog of signed contracts for this year close to 20 million euros, while the backlog for 2023 is estimated to be at roughly the same levels.

In addition to the large competition for digital identities with a budget of 515 million euros – which is facing appeals to the Council of State – and in which Byte participates with a percentage of 13% through the joint venture with OTE and Veridos Matsoukis, it claims public works , which are under evaluation, the value of which reaches 50 million euros. The outlook for the current fiscal year speaks of an even better financial performance compared to last year, which is reinforced by the contribution of the already completed, as well as the newly undertaken major public and private sector projects, as well as those expected to be undertaken until the end of the year.

Among those awarded last year and contracted in 2022 are the project for the Provision of Trust Services of the Ministry of Digital Governance with a budget of 1.85 million euros and the project for the Operation of the Human Resources Management System HRMS of the Ministry of Interior with a financial scope for Byte of the order of 2,750,677 euros. It should be noted that Ideal Holdings was not the only interested party that knocked on the company’s door, as according to market circles, another listed group, which operates in the wider technology sector, had arrived at Byte’s doorstep, however, the discussions did not ultimately result in agreement. Finally, it should be noted that Byte’s turnover in 2021 reached 39.9 million euros compared to 31.7 million euros in 2020, while pre-tax profits reached 4.3 million euros, increased by 12%.