Equals Receives FCA Approval to Complete the Acquisition of Roqqett

Equals Group plc, a leading fintech payments group focused on the SME marketplace, announced that further to the announcement issued on 28 November 2022​ and having now received regulatory approval from the Financial Conduct Authority, the acquisition of Roqqett Limited (Roqqett) has now completed.

The initial £1.0 million cash payment has been fully satisfied from Equals' existing cash resources and this will be followed by three deferred payments, one of up to £0.25 million satisfied in cash (when Roqqett receives the benefit of R&D tax credits) and two of £0.5 million, one in cash and the other satisfied by the issue of ordinary shares in Equals, struck at the five-day volume-weighted average price of 87.23p as of Friday, 25 November 2022. The second and third deferred payments become due when certain capabilities are added to the platform and are expected to be paid in under one year.

Roqqett is authorised by the FCA as both an AISP (Account Information Service Provider) and PISP (Payment Initiation Service Provider), two licences that Equals currently does not hold. These licences allow Roqqett to perform the full suite of open banking services, namely, to take payments and access financial data.

The acquisition of Roqqett is expected to be earnings accretive for the Group in the medium term and will allow Equals to widen the addressable markets for its services as well as driving growth.