Helsinki-based HR services firm VMP Plc announced that it has acquired Corporate Spirit, a Finland-based company specialising in employee management, expert surveys and organisational development.

VMP will finance the acquisition with its cash assets. The fixed debt free purchase price is €2.5 million, with an additional purchase price of up to €0.5 million. The additional purchase price is based on the profitability of year 2019. The transaction has no effect on VMP's guidance for the year 2019.

With the acquisition, VMP said it strengthens its recruiting and organisational development business area and expands its service offering.

Corporate Spirit was founded in 1986, and the company had sales of approximately €3.1 million and EBITDA of approximately €0.45 million in the fiscal year ending in March 2019. The company has offices in Espoo and Turku and employs more than 30 staff.

Juha Pesola, CEO of VMP, commented, "We want to strengthen our position in employee, customer experience and  organisational culture development services. We believe that these are key elements in our customer companies' success. Development must however be based on data and its thorough analysis, not guessing.”

“Corporate Spirit has developed modern tools and technologies, which enable agile and real time data gathering and analysis. The companies' methods are based on over 30 years' experience in research and comprehensive benchmark data from thousands of organisations from Finland and abroad.”

Laura Santasalo, CEO of Corporate Spirit, also commented, “During the past few years, Corporate Spirit has transformed more towards a people and organization development company. The foundations and competitive advantages of the company are surveys as a methodology, development knowledge and pioneering technological development. As part of VMP, we are able to continue on this development path and offer our customers a broader scope of HR services.”

VMP Group has been on an acquisition spree this year having acquired HR services company Extremely Nice Job Oy in January and retail staffing services firm Henkilöstöratkaisu Extraajat (Personal Care Extraajat Oy) in February.