London-listed fintech Gresham Technologies has agreed to be bought out by a private equity firm in a cash deal worth £146.7 million.
Gresham's board has recommended the offer from Alliance Bidco, which is indirectly owned by US private equity firm STG Partners. The 163.75 pence per share offer is 27% above Monday's closing price.
Gresham specialises in providing real-time data integrity and control solutions to help financial institution reduce their risks.
Bidco plans to combine the business with a firm it bought last year, called Alveo, "with the aim of building a global and differentiated enterprise data management and governance platform for the capital markets tech ecosystem".
Gresham's directors say they are recommending the offer in the face of "current challenging nature of Gresham’s end markets, which are consolidating and where customers are slower to replace legacy technologies with modern alternatives, which can impact Gresham’s sales pipeline".
The company also notes the "low level of liquidity" on the LSE, making it hard for shareholders to cash in.
Richard Last, chairman, Gresham, says: “We believe the cash offer provides a good opportunity for Gresham shareholders to realise fair and certain value and an exciting way for Gresham to compete more effectively in its global markets and to continue the Clareti journey started over a decade ago.”