Financial services giant Standard Life Plc (LON:SL.) has set out the terms of an 140p per share acquisition of AIM listed financial software company Focus Solutions Group (LON:FSG) , valuing the company at £42m. The recommended offer represents a premium of 33.3% to Focus’s closing price of 105p on 8 November, which was the date when Focus first said it was in talks over a possible deal. The two sides said the move would provide Focus’s customers and staff with the benefits of a strong and well-resourced owner whilst retaining the innovation and flexibility that the company’s customers have historically enjoyed.

Focus is an award winning software and consultancy provider to the financial services industry with systems that help its clients automate the delivery of financial products and services to their customers across multiple distribution channels. These capabilities are delivered to intermediaries, bancassurers, wealth managers, product providers and mortgage lenders and across a range of products such as investments, pensions, protection, mortgages and general insurance.

Earlier this year, Standard Life, which has around 6m customers and total assets under administration of £192bn, announced that it would broadly double its growth investment in 2010. It said the purchase of Focus would help it capitalise on significant opportunities arising from regulatory and demographic trends in its core markets. This growth investment is being made into the Standard Life’s key areas of strategic focus, namely corporate and retail markets, global investment management business and its Asian joint venture operations.

It added that continued investment in innovative technology was central to the delivery of its accelerated growth strategy. In particular, the combination of Focus’s technology solution with Standard Life's Wrap platform and its threesixty market proposition will help to deliver an end-to-end solution incorporating point of sale, customer relationship management, tax wrapper and investment trading.

Commenting on the acquisition, David Nish, group chief executive of Standard Life, said: “The Standard Life Group continues to focus on the delivery of market leading solutions and services for intermediaries and other distribution channels. Consistent with our previous acquisitions of Vebnet and threesixty, the acquisition of Focus therefore provides further capability in providing support, technology and innovation to our core markets and customers.”

Richard Stevenson,…

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