Sopra Steria has acquired, through its subsidiary Sopra Banking Software, 100% of Sword Apak, which develops specialised lending solutions for car loans and asset finance.

Sword Apak currently has more than one hundred clients, including major international banking groups and carmakers’ captive finance companies. Its flagship offering, Wholesale Finance System (WFS), is a vehicle fleet and inventory financing solution for car dealers. WFS is available through either a traditional licence/maintenance model or an ASP1 model.

Sword Apak was founded in 1979 and acquired by Sword Group in 2007. In 2017 it posted revenue of €27.5m. More than two-thirds of its revenues are recurring. EBITDA came to €7.1m in 2017. Over the past three years, the compound annual growth rate for revenue has been 19%. At 30 June 2018, Sword Apak had 250 employees.

This acquisition gives Sopra Banking Software an unrivalled position in the asset finance software market. It rounds out Cassiopae’s offering (loan financing and fleet or personal leasing) with inventory financing solutions for car dealers and other distribution networks. It also further consolidates its strong position with major groups that are already clients of the two companies by leveraging cross-selling opportunities, and provides a global, integrated, end-to-end solution covering all the sector’s financing needs.

The acquisition of Sword Apak fits perfectly with Sopra Banking Software’s strategy in the promising lending market. It is also aimed at strengthening the company’s business model by boosting its share of recurring revenue. As such, this acquisition reaffirms group’s confidence in Sopra Banking Software’s strategy and its capacity to address financial transformation-related challenges through its digital platform offerings.

Sopra Steria will consolidate Sword Apak in its accounts in October 2018.