"Invenco's expected 2022 revenue of $80m with mid-40 per cent gross margins enhances Vontier's growth and recurring revenue profile. The purchase price for the acquisition is US$80 million plus additional, contingent consideration based on performance," the filing said.
'Covid dealt a lousy hand'
The deal comes at a time when sales of charge-at-home or in-a-car-park electric vehicles are rising fast, and Z Energy and other service station operators are introducing systems that let customers pay using mobile apps.
"It was a good outcome by a great team who have really busted their 'balls', especially over the last couple of years," Maire said.
"Covid dealt a pretty lousy hand but thanks to a team who gave it everything."
Earlier, Maire expressed bitter disappointment that the Government did not adopt the Covid Card solution put forward by himself and other tech leaders, which he saw as a key measure for reopening borders at a time when business was hurting.
Invenco CEO John Scott said the petrol industry "just stopped overnight" in 2020 as lockdown hit. "It was a pretty challenging period".
"Staff voluntarily sacrificed salaries between 20 per cent to 50 per cent for a six to 12 month period to preserve jobs, in addition to an RIF [noice of reduction in force - Invenco cut around 10 per cent of its workforce] and taking on debt," Scott said.
Invenco also took $1.3m in wage subsidies.
But longer term, the pandemic was a positive because it drove demand for contactless payment at the pump, the CEO added.
New owner will push for growth
Vontier, based in North Carolina, is listed on the New York Stock Exchange with a market cap just under US$4 billion.
The sale, expected to close in the third quarter, is subject to Overseas Investment Office approval.
"Upon closing, Invenco will be integrated within Gilbarco Veeder-Root (GVR), leveraging GVR's channel to market," Vontier said in a statement. Vontier subsidiary GVR - also based in North Carolina - makes fuel dispensing and point-of-sale systems.
Scott said the firm, which employs 320, was advertising for another 40 staff - "and that will probably increase".
"There will be no changes in management or staff [after the deal closes]. If anyone leaves, it will be because they want to," Scott told the Herald this morning.
"We actually hope GVR have some folks who can help us fill the gaps because the real war is for talent in tech."
Invenco had captured nearly 100 per cent of the local outdoor payment market, Scott said, and was expanding fast in North America. US giant Costco is one of its clients.
'Worth more than the sticker price'
Deals closed in the past few months with two of the world's largest energy companies would see Invenco's technology used at around 20,000 fuel stops in the US, or around 20 per cent of the market, Scott said.
"We value the company at significantly more than the sticker price [of US$80m] which speaks to the value of the considerations."
Vontier was offering extra money if revenue targets were hit, and had committed to expanding Invenco's business.
"I think we got a fair price," Scott said.
"If we were just chasing the cash could have simply gone down the IPO route, but we saw an upside with Vontier."
Maire said Invenco needed $60m to $80m for expansion. Talks around the raise let to the Vontier deal.
"We started raising money for growth in October 2021 but once we started talking to GVR it was clear they were the preferred owner," Scott said.
"What we have now with GVR is hard for people outside of the industry to understand," Scott said.
"GVR is in 150+ countries with a market share in 40 to 60 per cent range. Invenco is in 10 countries with market share ranging from 5 per cent to 70 per cent. The GVR channel play alone is enough reason for the deal."
From its side, Invenco appealed to its new owner because of the technology it had developed in areas like the cloud and security, Scott said.
"We have 200 software engineers and only one marketing person. When we were doing due diligence we met with a number of the world's largest energy companies. One memorable quote was 'You have the tech of a billion-dollar company in the body of a $50m company'."
String of offshore sales
Invenco is the latest in a string of tech firms sold offshore over the past couple of years.
Business commentator Rod Oram told Newstalk ZB's Heather du Plessis-Allan that, like other firms, Invenco had reached a point where it would benefit from having more heft behind it.
"Sir Peter is one of our great tech entrepreneurs and it tells us a lot about tech in NZ that he's been able to build up a number of companies and get them to a reasonable size before selling them overseas," Oram said.
"And that's no reflection on him and his skills and those of his colleagues, it's the reality. Although this is a company that has operations in a number of other countries, it's still really hard to build up global spread and global scale and retain New Zealand ownership. He's sold to an American company that has the resources to take it further."
Maire has a history of founding tech firms, selling them, then reinvesting the profits in New Zealand startups.
He is best know for Navman, the pioneering maker of in-car GPS systems that was sold to US firm Brunswick for around $104m in 2007.
And in 2015, he sold Fusion Electronics, a maker of audio systems for boats, cars and campervans, to NYSE-listed Garmin for around $20m.
In between times, he put money into NZX-listed Rakon.
