Communisis buys TCA for £7.25m

Communisis has raided its acquisition war-chest once more to purchase The Communications Agency – set up by Robert Prevezer in the late Eighties – for £7.25m.
TCA’s clients include Royal Bank of Scotland, NatWest and Fiat, although it was its ground-breaking campaign for Prostate Research – featuring the late Bob Monkhouse talking from “beyond the grave” (pictured) – for which it is perhaps best known.
Its broad capabilities and experience across all media channels including TV, experiential and digital are central to the development of Communisis’ integrated and differentiated agency model.
Communisis claims the acquisition offers “considerable scope for growth and revenue synergies” with its existing client portfolio and the cross-selling of other marketing services in social media, video, digital development and content marketing.
All of TCA’s 42 staff are transferring to Communisis, with chairman Prevezer and chief executive Adam Leigh, the principal shareholders joining the group in senior executive roles. However, the TCA brand will disappear.
The deal includes a cash payment of up to £6.55m and 2,404,643 new ordinary shares in Communisis to the value of £1.45m. Added into the deal were TCA’s cash reserves of £750,000.
For the financial year ended 31 October 2013, TCA generated adjusted net income of £0.45m on a turnover of £6.2m (£4m net of recharged costs). Gross assets at that date were £1.38m.
Communisis chief executive Andy Blundell said: “TCA is a long-established, award-winning and well-respected agency that brings an impressive range of new capabilities and experience to the Group’s Design segment. It will sit at the heart of Communisis’ creative offering. The growth prospects are excellent.”
In April, Communisis secured a double acquisition – video company Jacaranda and digital agency Public Creative – which will both be rebranded and merged into its creative communications division.

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