JSE-listed Adapt IT Holdings Limited has announced the acquisition of Australia's Wisenet Group in a deal valued at R53.6-million, with potential earn-out adjustments over the next three years.

The Wisenet Group comprises the business of Kura Holdings Proprietary Limited ("Kura"), Wisenet Information Systems Proprietary Limited, ("Wisenet Australia"), Wise.Net Corporate Trustee Limited ("Wisenet NZ"), the business intellectual property ("IP") and existing IP rights of Wakatipu Management Pte Limited.

Founded in 1997, the Wisenet Group operates in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, with the main office situated in Melbourne, Australia.

The company provides a Software as a Service ("SaaS") Learning Relationship Management System (Student Lifecycle Management and Compliance) to vocational training institutions called Registered Training Organisations.

It has an annuity-based revenue model, being SaaS subscriptions, which account for 90% of total revenue. All revenue is earned outside of South Africa in hard currencies.

According to a statement issued, Wisenet has 22 employees who will remain with the business and the acquisition will complement Adapt IT's Education Division growth strategy and will provide the company with access to key proprietary software, customers and markets in the Australian education sector.

Sbu Shabalala, CEO of Adapt IT, says Wisenet has a 20-year track record in the Australian market and has built a credible reputation as the leading cloudbased Learning Relationship Management platform provider in the education sector.

"The introduction of Wisenet into Adapt IT furthers our ambition to be a leading software provider in our chosen sectors, in Africa and beyond," says Shabalala.

Wisenet CEO and co-founder, Ben Hamilton, will lead the business development efforts of Adapt IT in the APAC region, including other Adapt IT products not currently sold in the APAC region.

"We look forward to playing a meaningful role in Adapt IT's revenue growth in Australasia. I am excited about the cross-selling opportunities between our respective organisations and believe we will be able to unlock our synergies in the medium term," says Hamilton.

This latest deal follows Adapt IT's acquisition of the software firm Conor Group for R80-million in early November 2018.

The Conor acquisition was on the table for almost 8 months according to Shabalala and is in line with Adapt IT's strategy to identify "value appreciative acquisitions" within key industries like telecommunications.