The National Veterinary Care Ltd (ASX: NVL) share price jumped higher by as much as 4% today after it announced four new acquisitions, bringing the total number of integrated veterinary services businesses in its network to 54.
The company will pay approximately $7.2 million in total to acquire the clinics. Two veterinary clinics are based in New South Wales and the other two are in New Zealand. All clinics are firmly within its existing network of clinics.
At this stage all are subject to final due diligence, board approval, and lease assignments. They are expected to settle by April 30.
The two Australian clinics are expected to deliver annualised revenue and earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of $3.4 million and $0.8 million, respectively.
The New Zealand clinics are expected to deliver annualised revenue and EBIT of NZ$4.4 million and NZ$0.7 million.
Pleasingly, all four businesses are expected to be accretive to earnings in FY 2017.
Should you snap up National Veterinary Care's shares?
As the veterinary market is fragmented, I believe the company has an opportunity to grow significantly through acquisitions in the next decade.
Executing this growth strategy will be key. But thankfully I have a lot of confidence in the company delivering on this due to it employing a number of former Greencross Limited (ASX: GXL) executives.
These executives have been there and done that very successfully with Greencross already.
With pet ownership growing at a quicker rate than population growth, the veterinary industry is certainly one which I find appealing.
For this reason I think that National Veterinary Care is a great long-term buy and hold investment option for investors today.
