CentralNic – executive interview

CentralNic’s CEO, Ben Crawford, discusses the recent US$36m acquisition of Codewise, a global digital marketing and traffic monetisation platform based in Poland, funded by a £30m (US$39m) placing. Codewise’s operations (Zeropark and Voluum) are complementary to Team Internet, the domain monetisation segment of CentralNic’s business, which grew organically by 38% in the recent H120 results, despite the impact of COVID-19. Codewise was bought for 4.9x EBITDA and management expect the deal to be 20%+ earnings accretive from completion. With a combined global market share estimated to be above 30%, there will be synergies between the two businesses, with optimisation potential and increased customer choice through offering the full suite of monetisation services from a single supplier. CentralNic is focused on growing its additional service offering through the acquisition of businesses with a similar profile (high recurring revenues, c 100% cash conversion), and cross-selling additional products and services to its existing client base.

CentralNic Group (AIM: CNIC) is a leading global domain name services provider, operating through three divisions: Indirect (number two globally), Direct (Corporate and SME) and Monetisation. Services include domain name reselling, hosting, email services, security certification and monetisation.