UK mortgage and back office systems vendor Marlborough Stirling has made an agreed £87.2 million offer for Exchange FS, a supplier of software and services to financial intermediaries.
The combined group will seek to marry Marlborough Stirling's product administration capability with Exchange FS's established financial services trading platform. The aim is to facilitate straight through processing from the point of sale of a financial product through to the back-office of the product provider.
The acquisition will extend Marlborough Stirling's capabilities to support the distribution of financial products in the indirect sales channel, via IFAs and other intermediaries, and assist its entrance into new financial product markets such as general insurance and fund management.
Marlborough Stirling says the integration of Exchange FS with its own business will lead to pre-tax cost savings of approximately £3 million per annum, principally from the consolidation of activities and savings in central overheads and costs associated with Exchange FS being a listed company.
The announcement came as Marlborough Stirling unveiled a strong set of interim results, with pre-tax profits up 55% to £71 million on turnover up 48% to £33.7 million.