StatPro Regulatory News (SOG)

12 February 2016

StatPro Group plc

Acquisition of majority shareholding in South African InfoVest Consulting

StatPro Group plc (AIM: SOG, "StatPro", "the Group"), the AIM listed provider of cloud-based portfolio analysis and asset pricing services for the global asset management industry, is acquiring a 51% shareholding in InfoVest Consulting (Pty) Ltd ("InfoVest"), a South African headquartered software provider, specialising in data warehouse, ETL and reporting software for the asset management industry.

The purchase of the 51% shareholding is being made via the transfer of StatPro Portfolio Control ("SPC") licence agreements to InfoVest which StatPro provides to South African clients and which InfoVest currently supports on behalf of StatPro.

Highlights:

· Acquisition of 51% of InfoVest

· Purchase settled by the transfer of SPC licence contracts to InfoVest

· Joint marketing agreement signed to promote each other's products and services

· Justin Wheatley, StatPro CEO and Craig Arenhold, CEO StatPro South Africa will join InfoVest Board, although the business will be managed independently

· Deal is expected to be earnings enhancing in 2016

Given increased regulations there is a growing demand for compliance management solutions such as SPC, which is a module of one of StatPro's products, StatPro Seven. By taking a majority stake in InfoVest, StatPro will benefit from this expanding market as well as improving the product and services it offers.

InfoVest's data warehouse software is a cost effective solution for asset managers and service providers to manage their internal data effectively in order to provide both input data to other systems and for reporting. The success of implementing a solution such as StatPro Revolution Performance depends on a client's ability to provide data in a reliable manner. InfoVest's software is designed to do precisely this.

In addition, StatPro and InfoVest have entered into a joint marketing agreement to promote each other's products and services as part of StatPro. InfoVest products will keep their current branding, whilst benefitting from the marketing reach of StatPro.

Based on unaudited results for the year ended 28 February 2015, InfoVest reported revenue of ZAR 18.0 million (approximately £0.76 million), including approximately £0.13 million revenue for supporting SPC.

The closing date for the agreement is 1 March 2016. 

Justin Wheatley, Chief Executive of StatPro, commented:

"Owing to increased regulations there is clear demand for compliance management solutions in a post trade environment such as SPC. With the InfoVest team backing SPC, we can now supply this solution to more clients. This partnership will also mean that StatPro and InfoVest will be able to support and cross sell each other's products and services.

"Combining StatPro's expertise in building the Revolution suite of analytics and InfoVest's specialised skillsets required to market and support SPC, we are leveraging the comparative advantages of both businesses."

Robin Kemper, CEO of InfoVest, commented:

"This transaction provides a fantastic platform for Infovest to expand rapidly into new markets and territories in partnership with StatPro. We have already built a strong relationship with StatPro around SPC and believe that we can capitalise further on this relationship in the Investment Data Management and Compliance reporting space in support of StatPro's core Revolution strategy."

Enquiries:

About StatPro

StatPro is a global provider of award winning portfolio analytics solutions for the investment community. The Group's cloud-based platform provides vital analysis of portfolio performance, attribution, risk and compliance. This multi-asset class analytics platform helps StatPro's clients increase assets under management, improve client service, meet tough regulations and reduce costs.

The Group's integrated and global data coverage includes over 3.2 million securities such as equities, bonds, mutual funds, FX rates, futures, options, OTCs, sector classifications and much else besides. StatPro also covers most families of benchmarks including MSCI, FTSE, Russell, NASDAQ and the licence free Freedom Index.

StatPro has grown its Annualised Recurring Revenue from less than £1 million in 1999 to around £32 million today. The Group has operations in Europe, North America, South Africa, Asia and Australia, with hundreds of clients in 37 countries around the world. Approximately 80% of recurring revenues are generated outside the UK. StatPro Group plc shares are listed on AIM.

About Infovest

Infovest is one of South Africa's leading Investment Data Management software providers based in Cape Town. Their focus is to provide a sound and practical data management system to cater for the investment industry and apart from supporting SPC, they develop, market and support two key products (data warehouse and ETL tools).

Further information is given on their website: http://www.infovest.co.za/