Sharemarket information system provider Iress Market Technology has made another bid to enter the financial planning software market, just four months after the collapse of its planned merger withIWL.
In a move the group described as a key plank to its growth strategy, Iress announced last Friday it had signed a heads of agreement to purchase financial planning software groupXplan Technologies.
The deal will see Iress pay $5.1 million upfront for Xplan, and a subsequent amount after three years dependent on the group’s performance.
Iress has also committed to investing upward of $1.7 million over the next two years to upgrade Xplan.
The managing director of Iress, Peter Dunai, says the Xplan financial planning software is well placed to establish a major presence in the wealth management industry.
Iress abandoned a planned merger with IWL, which owns the Visiplan financial planning software, last November after IWL increased its stake in online broking groupSanford.
A subsequent attempt by IWL to buy out Sanford has been met with some resistance, with Sanford directors recommending shareholders reject IWL’s offer.
Iress announced its plans to acquire Xplan while reporting an after tax profit of $9.7 million for the 12 months to the end of December last year, a figure $2.5 million down on the previous year.
According to Iress, the result was impacted by a number of one-off items, including costs associated with the failed merger with IWL.
