ION Group's acquisition spree shows no sign of ending, with the fintech firm's Pattington subsidiary agreeing to buy FFastFill in a cash deal which values the UK derivatives trading vendor at £106.1 million.
The Pattington and FFastFill boards have agreed the terms of a recommended cash offer of 20 pence per share, a 32% premium on FFastFill's closing price on Thursday, 14 February.
Pattington already holds a 25.1% stake in FFastFill and has irrevocable undertakings to accept its offer from shareholders representing another 28%. Having agreed to accept the deal themselves, all the FFastFill directors will unanimously recommend it to shareholders.
LSE-quoted FFastFill provides Software as a Service (SaaS) derivatives trading products to more than 80 financial institutions around the world from offices in London, Chicago, Prague and Sydney.
For the financial year ended 31 March 2012, it reported total revenues of £17.2 million, adjusted operating profit of £1.9 million, and net assets of £23 million.
The deal comes a year after Pattington bought out UK screen-dealing software house Patsystems. While Patsystems and FFastFill will operate on a standalone basis, the Pattington directors "believe that there are also a number of strategic opportunities that could arise in the future which could extend the current scale and reach" of the pair.
Pattington's parent ION Group has already made two acquisitions this year, buying Financial Software Systems, and, through its Wall Street Systems unit, IT2.