As Poslovni Dnevnik/Lucija Spiljak writes, the Croatian company Span has taken over Ekobit, one of the leading Croatian companies for development in transactions, worth a huge 37.4 million kuna. With this, they confirmed that according to the IPO, they want to continue to grow, expand and further strengthen their position on the market.
According to the decision of the previous owners of Ekobit, a part of the price in the amount of 3.2 million kuna will be paid to the Croatian company Span shares in order to fulfill the Share Allocation Plan for Ekobit’s employees.
The Croatian company Span and Ekobit are technologically compatible, have a similar approach to human resource management, export 70 percent of their revenue, and are Microsoft’s Gold Partners. This acquisition will enable Span to offer an expanded portfolio of its services to a wide customer base and expand into new markets.
“When we entered our thirtieth year of existence, we realised that we needed to take another step forward. In doing so, we wanted to become part of some bigger story, and Span was the natural choice. In addition to being technologically compatible and also being Microsoft’s partners, Span also suits us in size – they’re bigger enough than us to give us many new opportunities, and yet they aren’t so big that they’d just end up swallowing Ekobit.
According to us, the approach in human resources management in both companies is based on similar starting points, meaning that we both understand how important each person is, we value each employee and we know what the situation on the labour market in Croatia is like. Since Span has gone public on the Zagreb Stock Exchange, it now allows us to take innovative approaches in rewarding our employees, both future and existing ones,” said the President of the Management Board of Ekobit, Goran Glisic.
The Croatian company Span currently employs 603 professionals who will be joined by Ekobit’s 70 or so, and both companies expect that number to reach around 700 soon.
“The development of software solutions is one of the four strategic segments of Span’s business, and by joining Ekobit, we’re now further strengthening that part. If good opportunities arise, we won’t hesitate before taking further acquisitions. It’s important to us that the companies we talk to fit into our technology part of business, but also in terms of strategies and target markets. HR compatibility is especially important to us. We want to further expand into the markets of Western Europe, and our goal is currently the DACH region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) in which Ekobit has a strong presence,” said the founder and CEO of Span, Nikola Dujmovic.
In addition to the development of software solutions, Ekobit stood out on the market with two products – BizDataX masking and BizDataX subsetting for the robust preparation of test data in safe secondary environments in accordance with GDPR regulations. Their experts from offices in Zagreb and Varazdin work for European clients such as Sauter, Rods & Cones, Aucxis, Erste Bank, Hrvatska postanska banka, and Posta Slovenije (Slovenian Post).
The Croatian company Span is also one of the largest IT exporters. In cooperation with 40 international partners, it operates with more than 1,200 customers, including leading global and regional corporations such as McDonald’s, Tate & Lyle, Starbucks, Newsec, Infobip, Metinvest Group, Triglav, NLB, Helios, Atlantic Group, Valamar Riviera, and Croatia osiguranje (insurance).
The Span Group consists of three Croatian companies – Span d.d., Bonsai.tech and Trilix – and eight subsidiaries in neighbouring Slovenia, in the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Switzerland and Moldova.
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