Bain Capital has revealed it is considering a potential offer for AIM-quoted Craneware (LON: CRW), although it is still early days. The Craneware share price has jumped 11% to £22.75 and that is 27% higher over the week. The market capitalisation is more than £800m.
The all-time share price high is £35.85, and it was reached in September 2018. Pre-tax profit has more than doubled since then.
Scotland-based Craneware provides accounting and billing software to US hospitals. The transition to the cloud-based Trisus product is helping to improve profitability. The strong cash flow of the business is a major attraction to Bain Capital – even after capitalising $18m of development spending this year.
Interim revenues were 10% higher at $100m and pre-tax profit improved from $17m to $20.6m. There was $57.2m in cash generated from operating activities. The interim dividend was raised by 4% to 13.5p/share.
In the year to June 2025, Craneware is forecast to generate revenues of $206.8m and pre-tax profit of $44.1m, which excludes acquisition amortisation. Net cash could reach $37.8m by the end of June 2025. The total dividend should be at least 29.5p/share.
Next year, pre-tax profit could reach $49.2m and net cash could be $63.1m. The shares are trading on around 24 times 2025-26 earnings, although this figure is affected by the exchange rate.