Consumer loans company International Personal Finance has agreed to a £543 million takeover by US finance firm BasePoint Capital in a move ending nearly two decades as a London-listed firm.
The deal comes after months of talks between the pair, with IPF first revealing discussions with BasePoint at the end of July.
New York-headquartered BasePoint will pay 235p a share in cash for FTSE 250-listed IPF, marking a 31% premium on the value of shares on July 29, before talks were announced.
It marks another blow to the London market, adding to a list of firms to have either defected to overseas markets or been bought out over the past year.
IPF – based in Leeds – offers small consumer loans in nine countries across Europe and Mexico, with around 1.7 million customers, many of whom are often unable to access credit from mainstream banks.
Despite being listed and headquartered in the UK, IPF has no customers in the country.
It was set up as a division of Provident Financial in 1997, before being demerged and listed separately in 2007.
Eric Schneider, chief executive of BasePoint, said: “IPF is a business we’ve followed for some time and have been consistently impressed by its positioning across nine different geographies as a leading provider of credit to underbanked and underserved individuals.
“With our deep experience in consumer specialty finance in the US, we believe BasePoint is well placed to help IPF build on its strengths and continue evolving its business model as a differentiated provider of consumer credit.”
Stuart Sinclair, chairman of IPF, said: “The IPF board has been considering its options to ensure that the market value better reflects the business’s opportunities and prospects, having consistently traded at a substantial discount to comparable international businesses over the past 10 years.
“Whilst the board continues to believe in the strategy and long-term prospects of IPF on a standalone basis, we recognise that the acquisition allows IPF shareholders to monetise their entire investment for cash at a fair price.
“We believe that the business will benefit from BasePoint’s ownership and its commitment to fulfil IPF’s purpose of building a better world through financial inclusion.”