CentralNic purchases Instra for $24 million, sells $3.6M in domains, and plans to raise $15M

CentralNic buys another domain name registrar.

Publicly traded domain name registrar and registry CentralNic (London AIM: CNIC) has agreed to acquire domain name registrar Instra Group for AU $33 million (USD $24 million), the firm disclosed today.

The purchase price includes AU $30 million in cash and AU $3 million in stock, with AU $5 million held in escrow and paid out over the next five years.

To fund the buyout, CentralNic plans to issue 25 million more shares at 40 pence each, raising £10 million (USD $15 million). The shares are being offered at a discount of 30% to yesterday’s closing mid-market price.

Understandably, existing shares are under pressure today since of this fresh share issue. Shares are down 18% to 47 pence each as of 9 PM EST.

Also, the firm sold $3.6 million in premium domain names, partially to help fund the buyout. (I wouldn’t be surprised if this includes one or more of the firm’s 2 letter domain names. I’ll investigate.)

Instra generated revenue of AU $14.8 million (USD $10.6 million) in the fiscal year ending June. With 150 country code domain names available, the registrar has become a favorite of corporate clients trying to protect their brands. It also has a retail registrar under the OnlyDomains brand and offers a reseller service.

This is CentralNic’s second big registrar buyout. It bought Internet.bs for $7.5 million last year.