A database analytics company is set to become the latest technology business listed in London to fall prey to a US bidder after it received a £542 million takeover offer.
FD Technologies has received a cash bid of £24.50 per share from TA Associates, a private equity firm based in Boston, prompting its shares to riseby 442p or 22.9 per cent to close at £23.70.
The board of FD Technologies said it wasminded to recommend that shareholders accept the offer if TA Associates makes a formal bid.
The company is a software specialist based in Newry, Northern Ireland, and is listed on the junior segment of the London Stock Exchange. It employs about 3,000 people, and its clients include Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs.
TA Associates is an investment firm with assets under management of more than $60 billion across a wide range of sectors including technology, healthcare, business services and consumer.
FD Technologies has been disposing of assets in recent years as it seeks to focus on assets specialising in the analysis of complex data sets.
The company spun out MRP, a marketing technology business, through a merger with CONTENTgine, a US company, and retained a stake of 49 per cent. The board also secured a sale of First Derivatives, a consulting business, for proceeds of £205 million, which were partly used to invest in KX, its data analysis technology.
KX analyses large data sets in real time to help companies predict and respond to market conditions across the various business areas they work in. The technology uses an approach to data analysis that delivers outcomes faster than rival products from Microsoft, Oracle and Amazon, and its speed advantage allows clients to reduce costs associated with running their IT systems for complicated tasks. Companies have become more sensitive to high IT costs owing to environmental concerns and cost increases in other parts of their businesses. FD Technologies’ sale of its consultancy unit cleared a path for investing £53 million in KX to help the analytics division move to becoming cash generative.
Analysts at Peel Hunt said the group’s continuing transformation “is not yet complete”, but added: “We believe the price being offered, if accepted, can result in a win-win for both parties.”
They said TA Associates had “expertise” that it could lend FD Technologies to help to improve its sales strategy.
The bid for FD Technologies is the latest from a US-based firm to target a British tech company. It comes after DoorDash, a US delivery group, made a £2.9 billion bid for Deliveroo earlier this week.
