Digital Barriers (DGB) may not make a profit or pay dividends yet, but the surveillance technology specialist is growing fast both organically and through a string of acquisitions.
The latest purchase by Digital Barriers is Visimetrics, a Prestwick-based specialist in high-performance digital video recording, storage and management for surveillance systems. Digital will pay £3.3m upfront and a deferred consideration of up to £4.7m, most of which will be paid in shares. Recent acquisitions have eaten through most of the group's £25m cash pile, and in December it announced a proposed share placing to raise £10m. At that time, six of the directors entered into an irrevocable undertaking to buy 234,479 of the 7.17m shares placed. Subsequently, purchases were made at 145p by managing director Colin Evans (68,965 shares), non-executive director Paul Taylor (34,482 shares), finance director Nik Holgate (6,896 shares) and group development director Zak Doffman (20,689 shares). Additionally, executive chairman Tom Black purchased 68,965 shares through his self-invested pension plan (Sipp), and senior independent director Bernie Waldron bought 34,482 shares through his Sipp.
Jonas Crosland