CentralNic renegotiates terms on SK-NIC acquisition

Software developer CentralNic announced on Friday that after its August acquisition agreement with Slovakian domain registrar SK-NIC had lapsed, the structure of the deal had changed, with the firms entering into a new share purchase agreement (SPA) on 30 November.

The reworked deal between the two would see CentralNic acquire SK-NIC, the exclusive country code top-level domain holder in Slovakia, as a legal entity, as well as all of its associated assets and liabilities.

The maximum total consideration for the acquisition was unchanged at €26.12m, however the initial consideration would drop from €21.27m to €20.27m, with the deferred cash consideration increasing €1m to €5.85m.

CentralNic also updated investors on its recent trading ahead of its 31 December financial year-end, the group said it expected to trade in line with market expectations for the full year, despite a lower than expected contribution from SK-NIC due to the delay of the acquisition.

Ben Crawford, CentralNic's chief executive, said, "The acquisition of SK-NIC is a major, earnings enhancing acquisition for the group. Buying a country code top-level domain operator is always complex. We are delighted to be in a position to complete this acquisition, and have already progressed the integration strategy as previously announced."

As of 1415, shares had dropped 1.17% to 63.50p.