VoyagerIT to reverse PAS into Envesta

Peter Holmes, finance director of VoyagerIT, and who is also on the board of Envesta, confirmed to netimperative.com two weeks ago that the reversal was likely, but said that both companies were still examining alternative opportunities.

But with entrepreneur, Stephen Dean, who is chairman of both VoyagerIT and Envesta, famous for his cash shell approach, and for the continuous shifting of his holdings from one of his vehicles to another, the news comes as no great surprise to the market. Dean controls 29.9% of Envesta through the stakes held by VoyagerIT and Artisan, a property company of which he is also chairman.

The deal will see Envesta buying Findstar, the holding company of PAS from Voyager for a total consideration of 7m.

The acquisition will be settled through the issue of 46.67m new Envesta shares, 2.5m in convertible preference shares, and a 1m loan note.

The move means that VoyagerIT has consolidated its holding in two separate companies to streamline its operations and accelerate its new core investment banking strategy. In the meantime, the company is also making an impressive profit. Having shelled out a total of 1.65m in cash and shares for Findstar, its subsidiary is paying it 7m for the company just seven months later.

For the eight months to 31 December 2000, Findstar made a consolidated loss of 470,952, and had negative net assets of 694,765.

Shares in Envesta have been suspended, while the company distributes a circular with full details of the deal to shareholders.