The buyout vehicle is Maia Holdings Ltd, which is controlled by existing Rolfe & Nolan directors and employees, and Stephen Lacey, a former finance director of Eyretel Plc. Rolfe & Nolan’s chief executive, Robert Freeman, and non-executive chairman Tim Hearley, are also directors of Maia Holdings.
The cash offer will be made by Deloitte & Touche Corporate Finance on behalf of Maia Holdings. The offer of 100 pence ($1.64) for each Rolfe & Nolan share, values the whole of the issued share capital of Rolfe & Nolan at roughly 15.2m pounds ($25m).
The independent directors have unanimously recommended that Rolfe & Nolan’s shareholders accept the offer.
In February 1998, rival SunGard Data Systems Inc sprang a $115m buyout bid for the company, which Rolfe & Nolan’s board was obliged to accept due to its dire financial position. However, users of the companies’ software then bombarded competition authorities on both sides of the Atlantic with protests that this would create a monopoly, and SunGard was forced to withdraw its bid.
The saga left Rolfe & Nolan saddled with the development cost of a new product called Lighthouse, a risk management application for the capital markets, and even worse, short of orders. The company was then forced to sell Lighthouse for 4.6m pounds ($7.6m) plus royalty payments.
Source: Computerwire
