Shearwater acquires Manchester-based cyber-security business

Digital resilience outfit Shearwater acquired cyber-security testing service Secarma for a total consideration of £7.4m on Tuesday.

To satisfy the consideration, Shearwater will issue 292.29m ordinary shares in its capital to Secarma, as well as an unsecured loan note of £700,000 to be repaid in tranches.

The AIM-listed firm believes the acquisition will significantly strengthen its existing cybersecurity testing services with world-leading "red teaming" capability and provides it with multiple cross-selling opportunities across its other companies.

Shearwater will also rebrand the Manchester-based company as Pentest.

Chairman David Williams said: "Over the past year we have witnessed a substantial and growing demand for cybersecurity testing services and red teaming in particular. We've looked at a number of opportunities in this sector and we're delighted to have secured a deal to purchase this business.

"The incoming team's industry expertise and considerable experience as well as market position will be very complementary to our services businesses and provides another key capability for the group as a whole."

As of 0825 BST, Shearwater shares had shot up 17.82% to 1.62p.