International public relations and healthcare communications group Huntsworth PLC (LSE: HNT) said it bought healthcare PR company Tonic Life Communications Ltd for an initial £3 million, adding the acquisition significantly expands the Huntsworth Health PR operations in the UK and adds to the existing PR division of Dorland in the US.
Tonic has been acquired from Scott Clark, Oliver Parsons, Moira Gitsham - who built the business and will remain with Tonic - and one other shareholder. On top of the initial payment, an interim payment based on the profits for the two years to June 30 2011 and a final payment based on the profits for the four years to June 30 2013 may be paid, Huntsworth said. The maximum total price to be paid for the business is £12.5 million.
For the year ended December 31 2008 Tonic had consolidated revenues of £3.3 million and pretax profit of £0.6 million.
Huntsworth chief operating officer Sally Withey said: “We believe that the acquisition of Tonic will further strengthen our Huntsworth Health offer which now constitutes approximately 27 percent of group revenues. The group expects to meet management's profit expectations in the first half of this year and with 86 percent of forecast revenues committed for 2009, we remain confident in respect of our full year result.”