Social Chain AG, has taken a majority stake in A4D Inc, a Southern Californian digital performance marketing agency. It will be its biggest acquisition to date.
The Manchester-based group has taken a 51% stake in A4D to “further accelerate” its growth in the USA – it hopes to generate at least half of its revenues in the US market by 2022.
A4D employs 40 people, with an annual turnover in excess of $35m. While details of the transaction haven’t been revealed, it has reportedly been made via a US subsidiary for a figure in the “low double digit million” range.
The transaction is expected to close at the end of the month.
Social Chain has also revealed its full year forecast since being publicly listed on the Germany stock exchange, through the merger with Lumaland AG.
Based on its current performance, it anticipates a turnover of $220m and profits of $9m.
“The COVID-19 crisis has been the truest test of nimbleness and resilience for companies and their leaders – and Social Chain has proven that its new-age, end-to-end and diversified model of owning social media audiences, owning the marketing capabilities and owning the products, is a model capable of weathering even the most torrential storms,” stated Steven Bartlett, CEO and Co-founder of Social Chain.
“The crisis did impact our marketing services business but we implemented quick and significant cost-saving measures in order to limit the impact of the disruption and safeguard our team. We are now forecasting strong growth for Q3 and Q4.”
Co-CEO, Wanja S. Oberhof added that they were currently in “advanced negotiations to finalise further acquisitions and I am confident that we will be able to acquire additional revenue in the region of $105 million at favourable conditions this year. This would enable us to increase pro-forma consolidated revenues of Social Chain AG to over $300 million as early as 2020 and create a strong basis for further growth in 2021.”
At the start of the year, Social Chain outlined its “acquisition offensive” with an “aggressive scaling” of its international growth.
