Irish group Paragon buys Scytl through Service Point
ERIC GALIÁN
Barcelona
22 OCT. 2020 -
https://www.expansion.com/catalunya/2020/10/22/5f914583468aebef3a8b461b.html
End to Scytl's soap. The Irish group Paragon has acquired the production unit of the electronic voting company following the approval of the Commercial Court number 6 of Barcelona, which carried the contest of creditors of the Spanish company. The operation will be formalized through Service Point, the reprographic and graphic solutions company purchased by Paragon in 2015, as this journal of sources known to the operation. The company has published a relevant fact this morning clarifying that a newly created subsidiary, called Scytl Election Technologies, wholly owned by Service Point, will be set up to manage the assets and intellectual property of the voting firm. The transaction also includes the Civiciti citizen participation platform and all of the group's subsidiaries in the United States, Canada, Australia, France and Greece.
This outcome saves 140 jobs and continues a business that, with the rise of digitization after the Covid crisis, is called upon to win whole between governments and organizations. Paragon's plans are to relaunch Service Point as "a pan-European platform for high-growth digital businesses."
Scytl entered the competition after dragging on debts of more than 80 million euros. The firm requested liquidation with the intention of the Sandton Capital fund to keep the production unit. The judge dismissed this possibility as a takedown bid and the sale went into an auction process in which only Paragon has bid to the end.
The purchase through Service Point is understandable, as it is the main link between Paragon and the Spanish market. Service Point is what is known in stock slang as a squeak, forits high volatility and low activity. In recent weeks, however, the value of the company has soared. Between 8 and 9 October his shares grew by 137%. Its shares now trade at 0.5 euros per title, up from 0.3 euros at the beginning of the month.
According to the latest accounts deposited, the voting firm's parent company, Scytl Secure Electronic Voting, invoiced 5.9 million in 2018 and lost 8.8 million euros. Founded in 2001 as a spin-off of the Universitat Aaut-noma de Barcelona (UAB), the company was led by its founder, Andreu Riera, until his death in 2006. Since then, the executive Pere Valles, current CEO of the online travel agency Exoticca, has piloted the international expansion of the firm.