Microlise has reached an agreement to acquire Enterprise Software Systems (‘ESS’), a leading provider of transportation management system (‘TMS’) solutions. The acquisition remains conditional upon no objections being raised by the UK Competition and Markets Authority (‘CMA’) but if agreed, would see Microlise acquire a c.20% EBITDA margin business (FY’Aug23: 19.6%) with c.75% of revenue recurring, for c.£8.5m in cash (c.8.5x EBITDA multiple). We view the proposed acquisition of ESS as highly co ....