NewMedia Spark, the early-stage technology investment group, has announced a public tender to acquire a majority stake in Sputz AG, the German broking and venture capital organisation.
Spark - which is currently engaged in a bidding war with Italy's AISoftware for control of online personal finance company Globalnet Financial - is offering a price of €8.50 per Sputz share, a premium of 31% to the price at the market close on 22 August 2001. .
The company has already entered into an agreement to acquire 26.4% of Sputz AG and is now aiming for a 51% controlling stake.
Sputz’s portfolio of holdings includes a number of important financial businesses, operating both online and offline. It owns approximately 1% of the Deutsche Bourse and approximately 11% of Tullett & Tokyo Liberty plc, as well as having majority ownership of significant German broking operations and a minority holding in Germany's first ECN. In addition it owns stakes in several technology related pre-IPO businesses, and has been in the process of developing a venture capital investment business to complement its financial services businesses. It also has fund management operations.
Michael Whitaker, CEO of Spark, says: "This is an important deal for Spark...Sputz has a good mix of unquoted investments and broking operations operating online and offline, and we believe that it will provide an ideal platform for both our further expansion into the German speaking market and for the further development of Spark's significant investments in online financial transaction platforms."