Darwen meter firm sells off Aussie arm (From Blackburn Citizen)

Darwen meter firm sells off Aussie arm

5:09pm Monday 11th March 2013 in News By Jonathon Dillon, Assistant news editor

SMART meter firm Bglobal has sold its Australian subsidiary Utilisoft to Hansen Corporation for £2.36million.

UItilisoft Australia provides data management, software and process solutions to customers in the Australian energy market.

Hansen is an independent provider of billing, customer care and IT solutions to the telecommunications, electricity, gas and water industries.

In the year ending 31 March 2012, Utilisoft Australia achieved revenue of £2.38million, operating profit of £0.36 million and pre-tax profit of £390,000.

The net assets of Utilisoft Australia were £400,000 at 31 March 2012.

Darwen-based Bglobal said the sale of Utilisoft Australia will allow it to focus on its remaining UK businesses and continue to develop its 'meter to cash' smart meter services platform.

During 2012, investment has been made in Bsmart Energy Solutions, a company that is focused on delivering end-to-end energy services to small businesses and Nutech Training Limited, a company that provides dual fuel smart meter installation training.

The company now has approximately £3.4million in the bank and the cash proceeds of the sale will be used to invest in the further development of products and services.

Tim Jackson-Smith, CEO, said: “The sale of our Australian subsidiary strengthens the group’s balance sheet and provides us with the resources to accelerate the development and field testing of our PAYG solution for which we have seen strong interest from existing energy suppliers and social and commercial landlords.”