Australia’s second-biggest printer and communications group IPMG is forming a ‘strategic and financial alliance’ with direct marketing outfit Sema, that may lead to a buyout. John Stewart, managing director of Sema, says the alliance is an opportunity for the two groups to cooperate across sales, marketing and production lines; with a path to equity ownership of Sema for IPMG. He says, “It will be an exchange of learnings in the two spaces we work in; Sema are much more in the digital print and data space. There will be learnings across what IPMG are good at and what Sema are good at.
John Stewart, managing director of Sema
“There are clearly some synergies across what we do now, and our client list. It makes strong commercial sense that we should work more closely together, and there will be a financial arrangement which if everything goes well has a path to equity.” In 2012 Sema was forced into administration with debts of some $7.3m, but was swiftly bought by a four-strong management team lead by Stewart, which turned the company’s focus to the digital marketing world offering digital mail, direct mail, mobile marketing and data. He says, “Sema did manage to get itself into a bit of a mess and we have largely been able to fix that. But there still needs to be some form of consolidation while printing finds its future. “Being the size we are we need good strong partners and IPMG fits that. I think the types of printing that we do and our ability with data has a big future but being partners with IPMG will be good for us. “The financial security IPMG brings to us provides the certainty we need for our future. It is also of value to our customers as we will be able to introduce them to the experience and expertise of IPMG in marketing communications.”
Kevin Slaven, CEO of IPMG
IPMG recently rebranded to flag its ability to offer multi-channel communications, bringing its digital marketing companies into the spotlight but insisting it was not turning its back on print. Kevin Slaven, CEO of IPMG, says, “The alliance with Sema provides us with the opportunity to further realise our vision to create meaningful connections between brands and audiences. “Sema’s skills in data capture and cleansing together with their personalisation and digital messaging capabilities complements IPMG’s existing marketing communications services.” Stewart says early dealings indicate that the two groups will work ‘easily and well’ together. Sema has offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and employs around 210 staff. IPMG calls itself the largest, privately owned marketing communications group in Australia. Under its umbrella of companies are Hannanprint, which last year opened the biggest new print plant in the country at Warwick Farm, award-winning Offset Alpine, Inprint, Bolton Print and packager Inpack.
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