The publisher of Holyrood political magazine and Politics Home website is to launch a £13.2 million fundraiser to part-finance its takeover of Merit Group .
London-based Dods confirmed on June 11 it is in talks to buy the software business intelligence business for up to £22.4 million.
Today it announced a placing and subscription with new and existing investors to raise £12.2 million and an open offer of shares to existing investors to raise an additional £1 million.
It said the acquisition would bring "deep technical knowledge and expertise in the field of data engineering, machine learning and artificial intelligence" opening the door to higher margin activities.
Dods, which has offices in London, Edinburgh, Brussels and Paris, also published its full-year results with revenue up from £20.6 million to £21.3 million, and adjusted EBITDA down from £3.5 million to £1.5 million.
Its publications include the Westminster-based The Parliament Magazine and The House.
Meritgroup collects data on business sectors including maritime, construction, fashion, oil and gas, retail and metals.
Chairman Dr David Hammond said: "The acquisition of Merit is the first step on our journey to becoming a significant augmented intelligence business where the combination of machine learning, artificial intelligence and human application meet to inform actionable business outcomes (we call this AI).
"There is a clear strategic fit and industrial logic in purchasing Merit which is a highly skilled, competent and educated business with over 15 years of domain expertise in data engineering.
"Merit is at the forefront of innovation and technology and has developed significant resident knowledge allowing them to help power some of the world's leading business intelligence solutions."
