Next15 Buys Financial Specialist Charterhouse Research

In the UK, marcoms group Next15 Communications has acquired specialist financial MR consultancy Charterhouse Research, for an initial consideration of £2.75m.

The payment is comprised of £1.74m as an up-front payment for the business and £1.01m for the net assets acquired.

Founded thirteen years ago, City of London-based Charterhouse conducts ad hoc research and offers access to several continuous syndicated surveys. These include the Business Banking Survey of more than 17,000 businesses a year; the Customer Contact Survey which tracks nearly 40,000 bank customer contacts annually; and the Mortgage Intermediary Survey. For the year ended 31 August 2016, Charterhouse reported turnover of £2.69m, adjusted profit before tax of £0.59m and net assets of £0.78m, and the firm is to be acquired debt-free.

The acquisition involves a cash payment of £2.58m, with the balance satisfied by the issue to the vendors of 41,598 shares in Next15. Further consideration may become payable based on the profits of Charterhouse for the years ending 31st January 2019 and 31st January 2020. As part of the transaction, Charterhouse will become part of Next15's MIG Global (MIG) data and insights group, which includes recently acquired B2B specialist Circle Research, data-driven B2B content marketing strategy firm Velocity Partners, brand MR and advisory consultancy Morar, data collection agency Viga and its Crowdology platform, drinks and licensed trade specialist research agency Cardinal, and shopper research business Envirosell. Charterhouse's leadership team of Julie Irwin (pictured), Mark Dennis and Sara McFadzean will remain in place, with Irwin continuing as MD and Dennis and McFadzean remaining directors. Mervyn Flack will be stepping down from his former role as Chairman.

Paul Bath, COO of MIG, comments: 'We are excited to be welcoming Charterhouse into the MIG family. With a complementary offering led by an experienced team of market experts, Charterhouse brings both new talent and greater client opportunities in the financial services sector. We look forward to working together with the team and leveraging MIG's data platforms to give the Charterhouse consultants more tools to deliver greater actionable insights to their clients'.

Web sites: www.next15.com , www.mig-global.com and www.charterhouse-research.co.uk .