Datasquirt sale funds Enprise push into Australia

The proceeds of last year’s sale of ASX-listed Datasquirt have gone towards buying the IT company Enprise.

The Auckland head quartered contact management software business was sold to US call centre provider LiveOps for $US12.5million last November, leaving a shell company, which was later rebranded DSQ Holdings.

After a $12.8 million cash redistribution, the shell company has now purchased Enprise for $2.1 million (in February last year, a division of Enprise, EMS-Cortex, was sold to US software giant Citrix. At the time, Mr Loveys said the 21 Enprise staff who worked on the EMS-Cortex product would remain working at Enprise's Auckland office. Today, Mr Loveys said the staff concerned were still in Auckland, but had moved to a Citrix office.)

Enprise has two divisions: Enprise Software, which develops software based on the SAP Business One platform, and Enprise Solutions, which provides offerings based on the MYOB Exo platform, and supports customers across Australasia.

Tech entrepreneur Mark Loveys (still best known in some circles as one-half of 80s pop duo Satellite Spies) is on the board of both Enprise and DSQ Holdings. Mr Loveys, who founded Enprise, owns much of the venture through his Ecap Group Ltd company.

He told NBROnline that he thought Enprise had potential so he put its purchase to other DSQ shareholders, and they agreed to the purchase. Enprises’s venture capitalist investors were also keen to sell.

Now, the old DSQ Holdings is to be delisted from the ASX. In its place, the old DSQ Holdings will be rebranded Enprise Group to account for its new ownership of Enprise Software and its related Enprise Solutions.

Mark Loveys and Enprise Group CFO Elliott Cooper now hold around 30% of the share capital of Enprise Group. Other significant investors include Neiser Capital Investment Fund, managed by former Boston

Consulting Group partner Dr Jens Neiser, and Nightingale Partners of Sydney, managed by Christian Bernecker.

DSQ Holdings chairman Christian Bernecker continues as chairman of Enprise Group, with Jens Neiser, Mark Loveys and Elliot Cooper continuing as directors.

Mr Loveys who was the original developer of Exonet, the original forerunner of MYOB EXO, described the purchase as “a bargain.”

“Enprise has a framework for growth with 100 retail partners around the world and 700 customers in New Zealand,” he told NBROnline.

Mr Loveys said he and fellow Enprise board members decided on an Australian listing to give it easier access to more investors. A secondary listing was also necessary as the cash redistribution meant it did not have sufficient capitalized shareholders for the main ASX.

“It’s still a public company, still accessible for people to buy shares. It’s an unusual situation, a New Zealand company listed in Australia,” Mr Loveys explained.

“DSQ Holdings is to be rebranded as Enprise Group on November 1. The timing is dictated by the exchanges. We are effectively delisting from the ASX and relisting on the NSX,” he said.

Mr Loveys said now the company plans to push more into mobile and cloud-based products, as well as open new offices across Australia.