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Lombard Risk Management plc (the "Company"),
provider of risk systems and independent valuation services,
is pleased to announce the sale by Lombard Risk Systems Limited
("Lombard Risk"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company,
of its ValuSpread business to Fitch Ratings Ltd. The maximum
consideration payable to the Company amounts to £6m in cash
plus a further £625,000 for deferred income; £4m of the consideration
is payable on completion with up to a further £2m payable
upon fulfilment of certain conditions. Completion of the transaction
is expected within 14 days.
The ValuSpread business is a leading
supplier of precise and regular market data on credit default
swaps to the financial industry. It has grown significantly
since its launch in 1999, and supplies data and related analytics,
on a daily basis, for both plain vanilla instruments and complex
structured credits to leading market makers and other sell
and buy side organizations. This data is used to meet internal
and external regulatory requirements.
The transaction will also provide Lombard
Risk with continued long-term access to high quality consensus
data from the ValuSpread service for use in its independent
valuations business through a long-term data subscription
from Fitch Ratings.
Commenting on the sale, John Wisbey,
Chairman & Chief Executive of Lombard Risk Management plc,
said: "ValuSpread has been a profitable business, contributing
around £570,000 of marginal profit to the Group for the year
to March 2005, which we believe has significant potential
for growth and synergistic development within the Fitch Ratings
business. We see tremendous growth opportunities in the areas
of specialist financial software and independent valuation
services, and the capital raised from this transaction will
provide additional capability for the Lombard Risk Group to
execute its strategic plan and aggressively pursue those opportunities."
Enquiries:
Lombard Risk Management plc:
John Wisbey, Chairman and CEO
Tel : +44 (0)20 7384 5000
Click here to email Lombard Risk's Investor Relations team
Noble & Company Ltd:
Alasdair Robinson, Director
Tel: +44 (0)20 7763 2200 |
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