Australia’s Leapfrog Group sold to UK based MKM Group
The Leapfrog Group, the Sydney based sales promotion and loyalty marketing business has announced that it is to be bought by UK based company MKM Group, which provides similar marketing services in the UK.
Leapfrog says that the accquisition constitutes a reverse takeover, given the size of The Leapfrog Group relative to MKM Group.
Established in 1997, The Leapfrog Group provides sales promotion programs to major branded companies in Australasia and the Asia Pacific region, providing strategic reward and loyalty programs together with short-term tactical consumer campaigns, based on travel, leisure and lifestyle incentives.
Leapfrog’s clients include Lufthansa, ANZ, Great Building Society, Procter & Gamble, Nestle and Sony.
Founded in 1989, MKM Group is a leading UK marketing services company, with shares quoted on the London Stock Exchange�s junior market, AIM.
MKM Group provides long term partnership and loyalty programs as well as sales promotion programs to companies such as HSBC, Procter & Gamble and Tesco.
MKM Group is buying Leapfrog to create a single global business which can offer tailored promotional solutions to international clients based on the new company’s combined product offering.
The deal has a maximum value of £6.95m depending on the financial performance of Leapfrog.
The deal is in line with MKM Group’s objective to expand through acquisitions in the marketing services sector, with Leapfrog operating in the same sector as MKM Group and the merger of the two businesses creating opportunities to achieve critical mass and build a global business.
The Leapfrog Group has an active and proven strategy of international expansion, having successfully established a sales operation in Auckland, New Zealand in 2005 and there is a significant opportunity to continue this expansion model into new geographic territories.
Co-founders of The Leapfrog Group, Brian Smillie and Richard Tenser, will become International Managing Director and International Development Director of MKM Group respectively.
Chairman of the The Leapfrog Group, Brian Smillie, said, �We are delighted to be working together with MKM Group, the deal offering us the opportunity to work with an innovative company offering new and exciting sales promotion products to our clients.”
“MKM has similar global growth ambitions to ourselves and we look forward to developing our joint business in Australia and beyond.”
Chairman of MKM Group, Andrew Johnson, said, “We believe this is an excellent match, with the Leapfrog Group a highly complementary business to our own and with a proven reputation.”
“This exciting opportunity represents a major advancement in our plans to develop the Group.” “The Leapfrog Group more than doubles our sales promotion activities and it also opens the way for significant international expansion.”
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