Both companies have very similar turnover and are of comparable size.
A default cash offer of £6.8 million or an alternate combination of cash, loan notes and shares totalling circa £9.9 million has been unanimously agreed by the board at TrigoldCrystal and will now be put to shareholders. It is expected that the transaction will be concluded within the next three months.
The combination of Mortgage Brain and TrigoldCrystal into a single business will provide the scale required to ensure the necessary product investment to deliver best of breed solutions and better services to the industry considerably faster than would be achieved separately.
Additionally, the economies of scale facilitated by the transaction will ensure that products and services continue to be delivered at affordable prices.
The market for the provision of technology solutions to professional financial intermediaries is circa £145million per annum. The combined business will have revenues of over £11million and will become the third largest provider in this market.
Mortgage Brain’s CEO, Mark Lofthouse, will remain as the chief executive of the combined business with Jon Whitmore, Peter Birch, Patrick Shuker, and initially Martin Colyer, joining the board.
“This announcement is great news for everyone in the industry,” commented Mark Lofthouse. “The combination of the businesses means that we will be able to accelerate new product development, continuously provide improved products and services and ensure that the advantages of technology based solutions are, cost effectively, made available to all.
“It is very important that we continue to meet our customers’ requirements both in terms of future product investment and continued support of products that are relied upon every day. Additionally, the combined business will be better placed to meet future regulatory requirements.”
A notification will be made to the Office of Fair Trading for clearance.
