Private equity firm EQT Fund Management has made a bid for adviser technology firm Iress.
Despite initial discussions, Iress, which has confirmed it has received a “confidential, unsolicited, non-binding and indicative proposal”, is looking for a higher price than what it has received.
The current proposal from EQT is to purchase Iress’ shares via a recommended scheme of arrangement at a price range of between A$15.30 and A$15.50 cash per share.
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Iress has revealed that there is no certainty a deal will be reached and the firm’s board has recommended that shareholders take no action in relation to the proposal.
Ian McKenna, founder of AdviserSoftware.com and the Financial Technology Research Centre, said: “For some time, adviser technology has been evolving into a global business and Iress was one of the very first firms to start this trend.
“The established management team has a strong track record of delivering scale solutions to financial advice firms in multiple jurisdictions.
“The growing collaboration between financial regulators is making it far easier to build and deploy solutions across many different countries with suitable localisation.
“Iress are strong players in wealth, mortgages and life insurance so have offerings that can support the full long-term savings and protection landscape.
“Even if the current bidder does not proceed, I expect many others will now be taking a good look at this firm which certainly has a lot to offer.”