Buyout at Ocuco will lead to expansion

Ocuco, the practice management software specialist whose clients include Vision Express, is poised for international expansion after completing a management buyout which values the Dublin business at €5m.

Led by CEO Leo Mac Canna, the buyout is a key part of the company's planned expansion programme which includes the roll-out of its Acuitas optical practical management software to 200 Vision Express stores.

The MBO was financed by a combination of cash and preference shares, including €1.5m via a business expansion scheme between 1997 and 2002.

Mac Canna now owns 80 per cent of the company, Ocuco UK chief executive and managing director Alice Austin and chief systems architect David Lewis own 5 per cent each, while the remaining staff own 10 per cent.

Prior to the buyout, Ocuco was 25 per cent owned by staff and management and 75 per cent owned by its 44 shareholders, who have seen a 'healthy return on their investment'.

Mac Canna said the MBO would lead to a more motivated team at Ocuco and the 'beginning of a new phase of investment in the Acuitas software suite'.

'The buyout puts the company in a better position to raise capital in the future for an extended product offering in patient management solutions and for international expansion,' he said. 'Our revamped dispensing and VAT accounting modules, to be launched at the Acuitas User Group meeting in May, will underline our continued commitment to our existing customers in independent UK optics.

'We will now be free to concentrate on online lens ordering, a long-standing user group request, for the next development phase.'