Hyro is divesting its infrastructure solutions business unit, Synergy Plus to ASX listed technology group, ComputerCORP in a sale worth $9.3 million.
Around 31 staff from Hyro’s Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney will be transferred to ComputerCORP. "The sale of the Synergy Plus infrastructure business is part of the ongoing review and re- focusing of the Hyro core business" said Hyro Chief Executive Officer, Bill Votsaris.
As part of the transaction Hyro is shedding the Synergy Software Holdings entity and its subsidiaries. The IBM infrastructure business, including mid-range server and storage solutions, related managed & hosting services and infrastructure maintenance business units will be transferred to ComputerCORP along with the Synergy and Synergy Plus trademarks. Hyro will retain Synergy Plus' application development, IBM application software consulting and application managed services businesses and continue to offer infrastructure service s via an ongoing partnership with ComputerCORP and other partners as required.
Hyro marketing director Richard Lord said that divestment was, part of the strategic plan to re-focus on digital going forward and believes that ComputerCORP is the “right place for that business to grow and prosper.” Lord said that as the company shifts into its new streamlined digital direction, growth will come organically. “It’s good to be in a position 12 months on from initiating our restructure when the call to rethink ones business is just arriving on the doorstep of our competitors. “We think digital is primed for growth. In particular in the reallocation of corporate and marketing expenditure into digital channels.”
The cash payment will be paid over a three year period depending on the profit performance of Synergy Plus over this period, with a minimum fee of $6.5M. $4.5M will be payable over the next 10 months. "Our strategy is to become the leading provider of digital services for major corporations and government agencies across the Asia Pacific region.
Hyro's customers use a wide range of infrastructure solutions from major vendors, and the Synergy Plus business unit is a specialist provider of IBM solutions which does not meet all of the current needs of our diverse customer base," Votsaris added.
Hyro Chairman Robert Clarke described 2008 as “truly complex and unusual from a business perspective” in the company annual report released today . Clarke outlined the succession of challenges that the company ahs navigated including “a compromised cash and working capital position, unpaid taxes and other statutory liabilities carried forward from previous years in excess of $7m, a need to suspend potential acquisitions in progress, managing certain significant loss-making international operations and of course, dealing with the fall out of the collapse of our primary financier, Lehman Brothers, in September 2008. “Hyro’s significant company overall and restructure over the last 12 months has resulted In a reduction of interest bearing debt has been reduced by around $28 million. While over $10 million in annual recurring costs have been wiped out of the business.
