M&A Activity • May 5, 2021
M&A Activity
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(Oslo, NORWAY – 5. May 2021) Huddlestock Fintech AS (HUDL, OSE: HUDL), an award-winning and leading wealth-tech company focused on developing and distributing B2B solutions towards the financial services industry, has entered into an agreement to acquire the Nordic financial technology company, Visigon Nordic AB. The acquisition will add more than 20 highly qualified expert consultants, complementary technology solutions and a strong pipeline of clients that is complementary to Huddlestock's existing technology offering.
"The acquisition of Visigon is a landmark deal for Huddlestock. It is the perfect symphony for delivering cutting edge digital solutions and direct market access to asset managers, custody banks, and trading platforms globally. The addition of Visigon's more than 20 expert consultants with strong commercial talents will accelerate our go-to market efforts considerably, as they possess the unique combination of top-notch technical expertise, commercial talent and customer relations in the Nordics," says CEO in Huddlestock, John E. Skajem.
"Visigon and Huddlestock are very complementary organizations. Over the last decade, Visigon has grown into becoming one of the leading financial technology companies in the Nordic region, working with top tier financial institutions as a key supplier of financial technology solutions. In the last years, we have started developing our own proprietary products as well. Together with Huddlestock, we will have one of the strongest competitive technology offerings in the market, and at the same time Visigon's customer offering can be brought out to Huddlestock's existing high-quality client base within European banking," says CEO of Visigon, Gustav Ekeblad
Visigon Nordic AB, established in 2010 by three entrepreneurs, is a leading financial technology company with offices in Stockholm and Copenhagen. The company has since inception grown into becoming the preferred supplier of financial consultancy services and technology providers in the Nordic region, with clients such as Nordea, Handelsbanken, SEB and other Nordic financial services companies.
The agreement implies an enterprise value of Visigon of NOK 56 million. This implies a valuation of 1.4x 2020 sales and 6.0x 2020 EBITDA, which means that the transaction is forecasted to be accretive to Huddlestock.
The transaction will be settled through a combination of cash and Huddlestock shares, where 60 percent will be paid in cash and 40 percent in shares at a price of NOK 6.00 per share. Before the transaction, Visigon is fully owned by 10 of the 20 employees of the company. They will have a lockup on their consideration shares, which will gradually vest during a period of 3 years, with 1/6 every six months.
Huddlestock expects the acquisition of Visigon to help accelerate the commercialization of Huddlestock's two primary technologies, Apex and Bedrock. The joint company's revenue targets will be adjusted as result
of the acquisition, with an increased forecast to 51 mill NOK in revenues, and 5.3 mill NOK in EBITDA in 2021.
The joint company will have offices in Oslo, Stavanger, Munich, Kuala Lumpur, Copenhagen, and Stockholm, and more than 30 employees.
Huddlestock is planning to raise up to NOK 50 mill in new equity to fund the acquisition of Visigon, support the company's growth strategy and strengthen working capital. A consortium of core shareholders has committed to support the acquisition of Visigon with a pre-commitment of NOK 30 mill, to eliminate financing risk. The details of the proposed issue will be announced shortly.
In addition to a number of shareholders, the following primary insiders have pre-committed themselves to the capital increase:
Øyvind Hovland – Chairman of the Board Per Øyvind Berge – Member of the Board Murshid Ali – Member of the Board John E. Skajem – CEO Since there are no allocation of shares available at this time, it is not possible to announce the number of shares each party will receive. As soon as this information becomes available, it will accordingly be announced.
Huddlestock will host a live webcast Thursday 6th of May 2021 at 10am CET, covering the details and strategic rationale for the acquisition. Presenters will be Chairman Øyvind Hovland and CEO John E. Skajem. Viewers may send in questions before the presentation to [email protected]
If you would like to participate, please follow the below link to the webcast:
https://inqrate.com/xtravideos/huddlestock-hudl-presentasjon-6-mai-2021/
Please find enclosed presentation material with supplementary information regarding Huddlestock and Visigon, the strategic rationale for the acquisition and pro forma financial information for the combined company.
For questions, please contact investor relations.
John E. Skajem, CEO, +47 418 87 412, [email protected]
Cecilia Luras, Director of Strategy & IR, +44 75 0090 5131, [email protected]
Huddlestock Fintech AS was listed on Euronext Growth Market 26 November 2020, as Norway's first fintech company to be publicly traded. Huddlestock Fintech is a company that develops unique software as a servicesolutions for digitizing work processes for custody banks, asset managers and trading venues.
The open, compliance-optimized and data centric platform allows our customers to offer a differentiated realtime product that reduces cost and increases efficiency. Huddlestock Fintech's technology enables end-to-end
digital services such as onboarding, client communication, reporting, order execution and portfolio management, all executed on the same platform.
Huddlestock has two main products: Apex (Custody) and Bedrock (Connectivity). Apex is a software as a service-solution that links custody services with asset managers and individual investors. Bedrock provides a white label solution that is primarily a product for financial services firms wanting to add low cost-efficient trading and investing services to their client web and app offerings. Huddlestock's client base includes BNP Paribas, Baader Bank, Donau Capital and Tradegate Exchange. For more information, please visit www.huddlestock.com.
The information included in this announcement is defined as inside information pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation article 7 and is publicly disclosed in accordance with MAR article 17.
The announcement is made by the contact persons set out above.
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