InvestorWeb buys Accompli from Zurich

Online financial services groupInvestorWeb(IWL) has struck a deal withZurich Australiato purchase the latter’s subsidiary group, Accompli Technologies.

As well as acquiring its financial services software subsidiary, Zurich has agreed to appoint IWL as the group’s preferred developer status for financial services software.

The preferred status, while not exclusive, will mean IWL will have favoured rights to future financial services technologies developed by Zurich Australia.

Under the terms of the Accompli Technologies purchase, Zurich would become IWL’s third largest shareholder, owning approximately 6.6 per cent, before outstanding option exercises and IWL would continue its presence in the financial services technologies.

Consideration for the purchase of Accompli Technologies will be done through an issue of 17,708,333 fully-paid shares, an IWL company statement says.

It is understood that the deal could give Zurich the potential to earn a further 2,500,000 fully-paid shares in IWL, dependent upon certain short-term performance hurdles being met. The shares have been issued at a price of $0.24, consistent with the recent strategic placement, the statement says.

However, at this stage the agreement is conditional on, among other things, IWL shareholder approval.

IWL chief executive officer, Otto Buttula says the acquisition is part of a strategy to grow its market-share and software solutions and the acquisition provides greater market share as well as additional intellectual property.

He says although the integration of Accompli Technologies into IWL is expected to take some time, the group expects the combination of the Accompli business with that of VisiPlan to benefit the group within 18 months.

As well as securing a deal with Zurich, IWL also announced that an extraordinary general meeting will be held on October 22 where shareholders will be asked to vote on three proposals.

The first is the acquistion of Accompli, the second a change in the company’s name from InvestorWeb Limited to IWL Limited and the third to pass a new corporate logo to be integrated into each business unit’s branding.

Accompli was the software division of Lonsdale Limited, which commenced business in 1986, with a vision of providing innovative solutions to the financial planning market. Accompli currently employs in excess of 50 staff.

The proposed purchase of Accompli is IWL’s fourth technology deal in the past few months. In August the group signed a deal withGarrison Financial Planningto deliver its VisiPlan software. In July the group signed deals with ING’sPartnership Planningand AMPHillrosswhich was also an agreement to deliver the VisiPlan software.