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It's a case of 'when one door closes, another opens' for National Veterinary Care (ASX: NVL), which has just acquired a new clinic in New South Wales.
The announcement coincides with news that one of two New Zealand clinic acquisitions slated in April fell through for NVL due to a condition around leasing not being met.
The company says the clinic was a smaller operation but would have been a strategic acquisition to grow NVL's Pet Doctors existing footprint in a specific area in New Zealand's South Island.
"However, NVL is pleased to announce that it has settled a clinic within an NVL geographic cluster in New South Wales.This clinic is larger than the New Zealand clinic that didn't proceed," the group said today.
National Vet Care acquired Pet Doctors for $23 million in September last year in a deal that included 23 clinics and two nurse training centres across the ditch. A few months later, its CEO and founder Thomas Steenackers won the inaugural Australian Young Entrepreneur Award hosted by Business News Australia.
It did not take long for the Gold Coast-based group to start building up its New Zealand presence. By the time its most recent New Zealand acquisition was settled in May, the company had 36 veterinary services businesses in the country.
The purchase price of that NZ deal combined with the latest NSW deal is set at $4.38 million, compared to the $3.71 million NVL placed on the two NZ businesses.
This amount will consist of $3.1 million in upfront payments and earnouts totaling $1.28 million.
"The new clinic in New South Wales, together with the recent New Zealand acquisition mentioned above, is expected to deliver aggregate annual revenue of approximately AU$3.82 million and an aggregate annual EBIT of approximately AU$0.83 million," NVL said.
With the deal the group has now acquired 99 integrated veterinary services businesses. In its half year results announced in February, the company forecast a 40 per cent rise in revenue for FY19 with an EBITDA margin of 14.5-15 per cent.
At the time of writing NVL shares were down 0.92 per cent at $2.16.
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