Tungsten Corporation, established last year by Edmund Truell, founder of private equity house Duke Street Capital, is set to float on London start-up market AIM with a view to initiating a reverse take-over of OB10 and First International Bank of Israel.

Tungsten is looking to raise £160 million to fund the takeovers and provide working capital for the combined businesses.

Part of the package of transactions also includes provisions for the acquisition of a five-year rolling licence agreement with @UK PLC to deploy its spend analytic software technology to the invoice data crossing OB10's network.

"The market opportunity for the spend analytics offering is significant," says Tungsten in its prospectus. "By applying illustrative cost saving economics for price variance and price benchmarking, a multi-billion pound cost saving opportunity across OB10's buyer network is implied."

"We have an exciting opportunity to create a disruptive global player," says Edmund Truell. "We believe that TungstenAnalytics can provide considerable savings for buyers on the platform from which we would expect to benefit. The strategy for the group to include a clean, duly authorised, UK bank into the middle of the flow of billions across the global network should provide suppliers with access to accelerated invoice settlement on a transparent and simple to execute basis. Tungsten thus aims to transform the financial aspects of the global supply chain."

Co-founded by Stefan Foryszewski, a former head of data delivery at Visa International in 2000, OB10 has grown to encompass a network of more than 140,000 suppliers in 42 countries. It processed more than £100bn worth of invoice transaction value last year.

OB10's shareholders can expect to receive £99 million in cash if the transaction goes through, with about 30% of the proceeds to be locked up in Tungsten shares.