LONDON—Next 15 has acquired a 75% stake in Morar, an international market research consultancy based in London.

Founded in 2005 by Roger Perowne and Alistair Cunningham, Morar advises clients such as Admiral, Land Securities, Dell, Fitness First and Sky on brand performance. Both Perowne and Cunningham of whom will remain with the business following the acquisition. 

Next 15 is paying £1.35m in cash upfront, with a further expected payment of around £450k in February 2015 depending on Morar’s performance. Another payment is also due in 2018. The remaining 25% stake in Morar will be acquired by Next 15 in 2020.

For the nine months to the end of October 2014, Morar achieved turnover of approximately £1.3m and a normalised profit before tax of approximately £0.5m. The firm had net assets of approximately £0.9m. 

“In the last few years Morar has invested in the development of its own technology platform," said Next 15 CEO Tim Dyson. "Morar's approach of combining high level consulting and technology fits with our digital strategy and extends our commitment to the insight and analytics area of marketing."

Next 15 has acquired numerous small agencies in recent years, typically in the digital and research sectors.

"The addition of Morar, with its team of researchers, consultants, strategists and software developers, further strengthens the group’s analytics and insight capabilities as we continue our transition from traditional communications services towards social and digital communications," added Dyson in a post on Next 15's website.