13th November 2018
Green Square Associates are delighted to have advised the shareholders of aura corporation on its sale to Marque Group.
Based in the UK and Germany, aura is a platform based end-to-end customer experience management agency. Its unique proprietary technology provides clients with customer insights and actions that deliver demonstrably enhanced levels of satisfaction, loyalty and retention.
Since inception, aura has operated client programmes across 34 countries predominantly within the automotive vertical and is widely recognised as a leading specialist CEM platform in the global automotive space.
Marque Group is a private equity-backed data and insights group of companies headquartered in Australia. Focusing on providing solutions to the automotive industry, the Marque Group family of companies currently consists of four entities – Smart Loyalty, THREE60 CRM, Vital Software and now aura. It is significantly expanding its global reach, with aura spearheading the Group’s growth across Europe.
Gary Martin, CEO, Marque Group commented:
“The fit between what aura provides in terms of a strong and proven CEM platform, together with its European base, was obvious from the start and through the due-diligence and post-acquisition integration process it became even more apparent. We have been able to quickly cross-fertilise aura’s technology and ways of working with our other entities to great mutual effect.”
Mike Trotman, Founder and MD, aura corporation commented:
“Marque Group’s pure automotive solutions focus made it the perfect home for us and our technology. It has quickly enabled us to gain new clients and given us new products to provide to existing clients. The fit could not have been better.
Throughout the deal preparation and process the team at Green Square were there to help and steer us around the holes in the road ahead. The professional way they approached each twist and turn helped us understand the implications of the choices we had and enabled us to make the right decision. Patience and persistence in abundance from Green Square ensured we arrived at agreements which made all parties happy and the best deal. They always protected our interests and are a great team to have on your side.”
Tony Walford, Partner, Green Square commented:
“We have worked with aura corp for a number of years during which time we had the pleasure of helping them position the business to become the highly sought-after entity it became. Working with Mike and the team was just great – Mike is a very genuine individual who it is really easy to work alongside on a transaction and became as much a part of our team as we did of his. We are very excited to have been able to secure such a strong future for the team and the business.”