Eight Capital Partners Announces Acquisition of Innovative Finance Srl

Eight Capital Partners, a provider of financial services targeting on investment opportunities in the technology, media, telecoms and financial service sector, has announced acquisition of Innovative Finance Srl ("InnFin").

The Company will pay an initial €2.45m with a further potential earn-out of up €2.45m based on the achievement of financial performance targets. In addition, it also announces a Term Loan to the Company of €1.1m.

ECP intends to create a supervisory board at InnFin and all of its wholly owned subsidiaries such that it has oversight capability and can cross-fertilise ideas, capital and deal flow across the portfolio. The Boards will consist of ECP members and independents.

Whilst ECP retained an option to acquire 60 per cent. of InnFin (the "Option Agreement"), details of which were announced on 27 July 2020, the Board decided it would better further ECP's strategy by acquiring the entire business.

ECP's Chairman, Dominic White, has agreed to lend €1.1m to the Company by way of a 24 month, unsecured loan, at an accruing interest rate of 5% p.a. ("Term Loan"), to enable the acquisition to proceed and to provide working capital to the Company. 

Commenting on the transactions, ECP's Chairman Dominic White said: "The acquisition of InnFin combined with the Term Loan in ECP are first steps towards building an innovative investment portfolio focussed increasingly on the revolution that we are witnessing within banking technology and the financial services industry. We envisage a number of strategic investment opportunities for ECP which could be transformational in terms of shareholder value in the medium term. We are also working through strategies that could significantly grow the Company's equity value such that it becomes a more attractive opportunity for investors, and, capital partner for future investee companies."