Canberra Data Centres chairman, Brett Chenoweth, is set to take a seat on the board of the publicly-listed entity that is set to result from a proposed acquisition by investment firm, HJB Corporation, of Microsoft independent software vendor (ISV), Janison Solutions.
HJB Corporation (ASX:HJB), which is publicly-listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), told shareholders on 10 September it had executed a conditional agreement to acquire 100 per cent of the issued capital in Janison Solutions, an integrated learning and digital assessment business.
The deal for the proposed acquisition, which is effectively a reverse takeover of the ASX-listed company, is worth $26 million, and is conditional upon HJB’s undertaking a capital raising effort of a minimum of $8 million.
At completion of the proposed transaction, which is yet to receive shareholder support and regulatory approval, HJB will change its name to Janison Education Group Limited, and change its ASX ticker code to JAN.
Janison Solutions is best known as an integrated learning and digital assessment business. The principal activities of the company are the provision of software development project services and the licensing and hosting of its learning and assessment software platform to a global client base.
It counts itself as Microsoft partner, and has also partnered with the likes of Civica, SMS Management & Technology and Veracity.
Indeed, the company’s cloud-based learning platform is hosted on Microsoft Azure and is device agnostic.
The company’s offerings include the Janison Learning software-as-a-service (SaaS) learning platform, which has been integrated into leading Australian and global corporates, and Janison Assessment, diagnostic exam platform.
Among the key technologies the company has created a server application that takes advantage of a new Microsoft technology called Service Fabric, which can support the provision of exams to millions of candidates at the same time, and a device application that utilises new Google technology using progressive web application patterns to allow devices to provide tests in online and offline mode.
The takeover deal is set to see the funds raised from the new capital raising effort primarily used to accelerate Janison’s growth initiatives, which will include funds to further develop Janison’s proprietary platform and to increase its business development capacity and marketing plans.
At completion of the transaction, the boardroom and management lineup of the new publicly-listed entity will see HJB’s current managing director, Chenoweth, who has also held the post of Canberra Data Centres chairman since late 2016, become a non-executive director of Janison Education Group Limited.
Additionally, HJB executive chairman, Mike Hill, will become Chairman, while Janison founder and executive director, Wayne Houlden, will continue to hold his dual titles, and Janison’s CEO, Tom Richardson, is set to remain in the CEO role. At the same time, former Deloitte partner, David Willington, will become a non-executive director.
