Airside Vehicle Tracking & Management Solutions / Airport Vehicle Telematics

On 24 December 2013 Globavista Ltd acquired the business and assets of BlueFinger Ltd from Masternaut Holdings Ltd.

GlobavistaLtd is operated by the owner managers; Mark Hewish, Managing Director, and his two partners Steve Jones and Lindsay Rhodin. Steve preceded Mark as MD of BlueFinger and has worked closely with him for 17 years. Lindsay mobilised 25 years of merchant banking experience in London and NYC to provide advice on strategic matters, ultimately leading the project team, which made the acquisition possible. The management team invested in the business and were supported in the acquisition with equity investment from IW Capital and with bank facilities from NatWest.

Once a subsidiary of Racal, the global defence contractor, until it was acquired by Masternaut, the pan-European vehicular telemetry company, BlueFinger was established in 2002. It commands an international reputation for developing sophisticated asset monitoring solutions in remote, secure and/or hostile environments, be it 1,500 miles offshore, on mountain peaks or in desert environments. Its clients include DEFRA, Heathrow Airport, the Volvo Ocean Race, British Aerospace and the Kuwaiti government.

Clients familiar with the capabilities of BlueFinger technology grow to depend upon it utterly, typically renewing support contracts without hesitation, and several client relationships span more than a decade. Yet having always been a subsidiary of large organisations with divergent strategic agendas, BlueFinger’s world beating technology has historically found itself to be the proverbial light under a bushel. For the first time, Globavista Ltd. will devote all its efforts to harnessing the enormous potential implicit to the intellectual property acquired from BlueFinger, which includes its precise positioning hardware, TracsTDMA, and its trademark multi-platform proprietary asset monitoring software, Globavista (formerly Saffire).

Considerable scope exists for bundling Globavista intellectual property with 3rd party technology to provide bespoke telemetry and asset monitoring solutions to problems that are too difficult for anyone else to solve. Mr. Hewish says, “…Whilst Globavista may be best known in the maritime market we also succeed in meeting complex requirements from tracking nurses in the community through to monitoring assets in and around the world’s largest oil refineries and airports”. Globavista software can also be readily deployed on a stand-alone, SAAS basis, as required.

“This is a very exciting time for us,” adds Mr. Hewish. “Our team at Globavista is the very best in the business’ chosen fields; dynamic, highly experienced and confident. We also have the business backing and support to help us develop new ideas and products and then to be able to bring them to market. We are ambitious to expand in all the sectors where we currently work, delivering fresh technology solutions to both new and existing clients.”

Mr. Hewish extends his thanks to the funders and the advisory team which were essential to the successful acquisition of BlueFinger by Globavista. This included Alan Armstrong and Luke Davis of IW Capital, who had the vision to support the team and deliver the equity finance. Ian Cook of NatWest Bank who appreciated the strong creditworthiness of Globavista. Ross Wiggins and Mike Grayer of Menzies Corporate Finance who led the due diligence process. Jay Birch and Manmohan Singh of DWF LLP and Simon Arkell of EMW LLP who provided the legal tradecraft to bring the transaction home.