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GOLD Coast IT company RightCrowd will take a backdoor route onto the ASX through a reverse takeover of Omni Market Tide (ASX: OMT).
Brisbane-based OMT, which is backed by billionaire pokies baron Bruce Mathieson, has been attempting to commercialise a system to allow ASX companies to host an online AGM, but the technology has struggled to take off.
In the half year to 30 June, the company made a $2.5 million loss. Four directors and the company secretary resigned between March and August and then it made a further $1 million loss in the quarter ended 30 September.
RightCrowd, which has an address at Burleigh, is a physical security, compliance and safety software company founded in 2004 that will offer a new start for the OMT backers.
A $35 million capital raise will be led and underwritten by Morgans as part of the deal, and this will give the new company an implied value of $85 million.
Upon completion, RightCrowd founder and CEO, Peter Hill, will become an executive director of the new company, which will change its name to RightCrowd.
The funds raised will be used to build global sales capabilities, for the continued evolution of its products, and for long-term research and development of new products.
RightCrowd was founded in 2004 to bring physical security access control systems together with HR and IT systems. It was acquired by Virsa Systems two years later and just two months after that, Virsa was acquired by SAP.
In mid-2007 RightCrowd was spun out of SAP, along with its software intellectual property, into the "SAP ecosystem" as an independent software vendor.
Steve Terry, the managing director of OMT since July, has significant experience in listed IT companies, having been the general manager of the Queensland operation of Technology One (ASX: TNE).
Chairman of the company is Glenn Vassallo, founder of GRT lawyers.
Several conditions essential for the deal to proceed will be ticked when OMT shareholders meet in December.
OMT is currently listed as being worth $0.015 per share.
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