Salmat guns for outsourcers

Sydney-based company Salmat will use funds from its forthcoming stock float to acquire rival document outsourcing and archiving companies in Australia and Asia, according to one of its founders.

Salmat filed during October for an initial public offering (IPO) on the Australian Stock Exchange, raising $76 million by selling off 34.4 per cent of its capital.

This price would value the company at $221 million, with co-founders and joint managing directors Peter Mattick and Philip Salter owning 58.6 per cent, Salmat employees being allocated shares totalling 3.5 per cent, and investment firm Jardine Matheson holding a further 3.5 per cent.

Mr Mattick told IDM that Salmat had a “very strong presence” in microfiche storage, digital archiving and document management outsourcing, and his company hoped to grow in those areas after the IPO.

”We are gearing our balance sheet to put us in a position to take advantage of opportunities, both domestic and international,” he said. “In Asia, we will make some minor purchases to broaden our scope. In the domestic market, there is some room for rationalisation. We will aim to increase our size.”

The company operates call centres, offers electronic bill payment and presentment services, operates a thriving direct mail business, handles bills for banks and utilities in huge outsourcing deals, and provides storage space for both paper-based and electronic forms of off-site archiving. The company has Asian outposts in the Philippines, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Mr Mattick said that Salmat would also examine opportunities to buy local data centres, and add developers of “complementary products” to its own existing store of intellectual property and facilities.

”We have an R&D team which runs to 15 to 18 people now,” he said. “We have a series of projects they are working on. Ideally, we provide a comprehensive solution for our customers, rather than a particular product or service. Most of the customers we provide for, buy across our services lines.”