As smart city technology continues to be adopted world wide, parking specialists Smart Parking (ASX: SPZ) have boosted their European portfolio with the acquisition of Enterprise Parking Solutions which includes their 68 sites under management for a minimal fee.
The addition of EPS and their managed parking sites for $1.54 million increases Smart Parking’s total sites under management by 11% to 693 globally.
Following a similar trend across the smart city industry, EPS has been hit hard by COVID-19 where pandemic conditions dramatically reduced the amount of cars on the road, resulting in just $900k revenue through FY21. This included a slight recovery towards the back end with the 3 months to 31 July 2021 generating $540k alone which should have the EPS business on track to deliver more than $2m if pandemic conditions in the UK improve.
“We are excited to welcome the Enterprise Parking business and customers to the Smart Parking Group. Enterprise Parking has built a well-respected and profitable company over the last 4 years,” said Smart Parking CEO, Paul Gillespie.
“The portfolio of sites under management includes great customers that we are looking forward to working with. This is a simple and clean transaction, and Enterprise Parking is a compelling strategic fit that is financially accretive for our shareholders. It allows the Company to build scale and accelerate towards our growth target of 1,000 UK sites by June 2023”.
Increasing their footprint in the UK through the addition of these 68 new sites continues a busy year for Smart Parking which has positioned itself for financial momentum in the pandemic recovery. This has included a 23% increase in the total number of sites in their portfolio where the smart sensors installed can assist facility operators, law enforcement and city planners.
If the amount of parking tickets issued by smart parking sensors is an indicator of the pandemic recovery, infringement notices were up 29% for the second half of FY21 compared to the first half.
Although the UK has been one of the hardest hit nations from rolling pandemic lockdowns, their commitment to resume life as normal has led to a seasonal bounce-back in social activity to the benefit of Smart Parking. This included the removal of all limits on social contact in July 2021 which resulted in a seasonal bounce-back in road traffic.
Riding this global recovery momentum, Smart Parking is set to target similar growth in New Zealand and Australia in the coming months where licence plate recognition technology is quickly displacing jobs previously required by manual labour.
For the Half Year ended 31 December 2021, Smart Parking reported $10.2m in revenue which delivered net profit of $4.5m, a major improvement on the $1.7m loss on the previous corresponding period.
Alfred Chan is a Business Reporter at The Sentiment specialising in ASX-listed small cap companies, a bloodstock enthusiast and former equities analyst.
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