Solitea Holding, which specialises in the development of corporate, accounting and HR systems, is fusing into two national companies on 1 July 2020. By merging thirty Czech and seven Slovak companies, Solitea will become one of the largest market players in the Central European market of IT solutions. Solitea estimates its revenues for the last fiscal year at about two billion crowns. Its software solutions and products are used by more than 260,000 customers in 15 countries.
“The merger allows a Czech company to be created with a large subsidiary in Slovakia and other subsidiaries in nine European countries. We want to simplify and slim down the organisation structure and focus more on interconnecting our products. A similar step is unprecedented on our IT market,” says Martin Cígler, Chairman of the Board Directors of Solitea Holding, about the merger which had been in preparation for over a year.
The merger involves twenty-three companies from the Czech Republic and seven from Slovakia. These companies manage sixteen product brands. Solitea Holding includes accounting systems for entrepreneurs and small companies (Money S3, iDoklad, Dotykačka, Markeeta, Profi Účtenka), as well as ERP systems for larger companies (Byznys, Money S4, Money S5, Vario). Vema, the Czech leader in payroll and HR systems is also included. Solitea is an established provider of IT solutions to the state administration, e.g., the eRecept application. Its solution for the Finnish customs authority is one of the largest exports of domestic IT technology in history. The Holding is a Microsoft partner for corporate applications such as Dynamics, SharePoint, CRM and data analytics, and a long-term partner to Infor in the area of the Infor LN and Infor Visual ERP systems for manufacturing enterprises.
“We are doing well. All of our recent acquisitions have been financed from profit. In the current fiscal year ending on 30 June, we expect revenues to have grown from 1.36 billion crowns to 2 billion crowns, which is a 47% increase compared to the previous period,” says Cígler. In the past four years, Solitea has purchased a number of IT companies. This year, the acquisition of Axiom Provis was finalised. Last year, acquisitions included Clever Decision in the Czech Republic, MIT Informatika in Slovenia, Billans in Serbia and WBI in Slovakia.
The merger will also involve major rebranding. “We want Solitea to become maximally integrated with our product brands and to support them. We are not planning any revolutionary changes in staff or forced migration of our customers to different products. But the merger will improve the sharing of know-how. This will allow our customers to migrate more seamlessly to software with higher specialisations when developing their business,” says Cígler.
Solitea employs more than 1,100 people in nine countries in Central and Eastern Europe. The employee headcount has increased by 39% year-on-year. “Our employees will not feel any major impact from the merger. On the contrary, they will be working for a stronger and larger company, which can offer them more attractive benefits,” summarises Cígler.
About Solitea Holding
Solitea, a.s. is among the major European ICT solution providers. It employs more than 1,100 people in seven countries and serves over 260,000 customers in 15 countries in the European region. In the 2020 fiscal year, which ends on 30 June, the holding forecasts revenues of around 2 billion crowns and it is consistently among the fastest-growing IT companies in the CEE region. Profit before interest, tax and depreciation (EBITDA) increased last year to 134.202 million, i.e., 12% compared to the previous period. In the past four years, Solitea has made a number of major acquisitions of IT companies in the Czech Republic and Slovakia (Altus software, Aquasoft, Axiom Provis, BI Experts, CDL SYSTEM, Cígler software, Clever Decision, Dotykačka, Dynamica, GEMMA Systems, J.K.R., Smart software, Vema, WBI), in Austria (JET ERP) and in the Balkans (Billans, MIT Informatika, SAOP). Solitea continues to strengthen its position as a major European supplier of information technologies for commercial entities and state administration. In addition to the Czech and Slovak Republics, Solitea also operates on the markets in Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Poland, Serbia and Germany.