First Derivatives PLC Partial sale of Quantile Technologies holding (9579P)

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RNS Number : 9579P

First Derivatives PLC

23 February 2021

23 February 2021

First Derivatives plc

("FD" or the "Group")

Partial sale of Quantile Technologies holding

FD (AIM: FDP.L, Euronext Growth: FDP.I) announces that it has agreed to sell part of its investment in Quantile Technologies ("Quantile") to Spectrum Equity, a growth equity firm. Under the transaction FD will dispose of the majority of its holding in Quantile for cash consideration of GBP11m, representing a total gain of GBP10m on the initial cost of the investment (GBP7m gain on the current carrying value). Following this transaction FD will retain a minority stake in Quantile.

The investment occurred as part of FD's strategy of assisting companies that were adopting KX in new and innovative ways. Quantile utilises KX as the technology that underpins its highly successful advanced compression and risk rebalancing services and remains a valuable customer of the Group. The investment in Quantile represented FD's largest investment of this type, accounting for GBP10m of a total of GBP16m of other financial assets on the Group's consolidated balance sheet as at 28 February 2020. In the year to December 2019, Quantile reported net profit of GBP0.7m, although its performance was not consolidated as FD's holding was below 20%.

The consideration has been received and the proceeds will be used for general working capital purposes.

Enquiries

For further information please contact:

 
First Derivatives plc                                         [phone] 
 Seamus Keating, Chief Executive Officer                                2242 
 Ryan Preston, Chief Financial Officer              www.firstderivatives.com 
 Ian Mitchell, Head of Investor Relations 
 
Investec Bank plc (Nominated Adviser and Broker) 
 Andrew Pinder 
 Carlton Nelson                                               [phone] 
 Sebastian Lawrence                                                     5970 
 
Goodbody (Euronext Growth Adviser and Broker) 
 David Kearney 
 Don Harrington 
 Finbarr Griffin                                             [phone] 
 
FTI Consulting 
 Matt Dixon 
 Dwight Burden                                                [phone] 
 Darius Alexander                                                       1000 
 
 

About FD

FD is a global technology provider with more than 20 years of experience working with some of the world's largest finance, technology, automotive, manufacturing and energy institutions. The Group's KX technology, incorporating the kdb+ time-series database, is a leader in high-performance, in-memory computing, streaming analytics and operational intelligence. KX delivers the best possible performance and flexibility for high-volume, data-intensive analytics and applications across multiple industries. FD operates from 15 offices across Europe, North America and Asia Pacific, including its headquarters in Newry, and employs more than 2,400 people worldwide.

For further information, please visit www.firstderivatives.com and www.KX.com

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February 23, 2021 02:00 ET (07:00 GMT)