HUDDLESTOCK FINTECH ACQUIRES VISIGON NORDIC AB IN AN LANDMARK DEAL TO ACCELERATE
GLOBAL GROWTH. 

Oslo, NORWAY - 5. May 2021 Huddlestock Fintech AS (HUDL, OSE: HUDL), an
award-winning and leading wealth-tech company focused on developing and
distributing B2B solutions towards the financial services industry, has entered
into an agreement to acquire the Nordic financial technology company, Visigon
Nordic AB. The acquisition will add more than 20 highly qualified expert
consultants, complementary technology solutions and a strong pipeline of clients
that is complementary to Huddlestock's existing technology offering. 

"The acquisition of Visigon is a landmark deal for Huddlestock.  It is the
perfect symphony for delivering cutting edge digital solutions and direct market
access to asset managers, custody banks, and trading platforms globally. The
addition of Visigon's more than 20 expert consultants with strong commercial
talents will accelerate our go-to market efforts considerably, as they possess
the unique combination of top-notch technical expertise, commercial talent and
customer relations in the Nordics," says CEO in Huddlestock, John E. Skajem. 

"Visigon and Huddlestock are very complementary organizations. Over the last
decade, Visigon has grown into becoming one of the leading financial technology
companies in the Nordic region, working with top tier financial institutions as
a key supplier of financial technology solutions. In the last years, we have
started developing our own proprietary products as well. Together with
Huddlestock, we will have one of the strongest competitive technology offerings
in the market, and at the same time Visigon's customer offering can be brought
out to Huddlestock's existing high-quality client base within European banking,"
says CEO of Visigon, Gustav Ekeblad

Visigon Nordic AB, established in 2010 by three entrepreneurs, is a leading
financial technology company with offices in Stockholm and Copenhagen. The
company has since inception grown into becoming the preferred supplier of
financial consultancy services and technology providers in the Nordic region,
with clients such as Nordea, Handelsbanken, SEB and other Nordic financial
services companies. 

The agreement implies an enterprise value of Visigon of NOK 56.000.000. This
implies a valuation of 1.4x 2020 sales and 6.0x 2020 EBITDA, which means that
the transaction is forecasted to be accretive to Huddlestock. 

The transaction will be settled through a combination of cash and Huddlestock
shares, where 60 percent will be paid in cash and 40 percent in shares at a
price of NOK 6.00 per share. Before the transaction, Visigon is fully owned by
10 of the 20 employees of the company. They will have a lockup on their
consideration shares, which will gradually vest during a period of 3 years, with
1/6 every six months.

Huddlestock expects the acquisition of Visigon to help accelerate the
commercialization of Huddlestock's two primary technologies, Apex and Bedrock. 
The joint company's revenue targets will be adjusted as result of the
acquisition, with an increased forecast to NOK 51.000.0000 in revenues, and NOK
5.300.000 in EBITDA in 2021. 

The joint company will have offices in Oslo, Stavanger, Munich, Kuala Lumpur,
Copenhagen, and Stockholm, and more than 30 employees. 

FINANCING
Huddlestock is planning to raise up to NOK 50.000.000 in new equity to fund the
acquisition of Visigon, support the company's growth strategy and strengthen
working capital.  A consortium of core shareholders has committed to support the
acquisition of Visigon with a pre-commitment of NOK 30.000.000, to eliminate
financing risk. The details of the proposed issue will be announced shortly.

In addition to a number of shareholders, the following primary insiders have
pre-committed themselves to the capital increase:
Øyvind Hovland - Chairman of the Board
Per Øyvind Berge - Member of the Board
Murshid Ali - Member of the Board
John E. Skajem - CEO

Since there are no allocation of shares available at this time, it is not
possible to announce the number of shares each party will receive. As soon as
this information becomes available, it will accordingly be announced.

Huddlestock will host a live webcast Thursday 6th of May 2021 at 10am CET,
covering the details and strategic rationale for the acquisition. Presenters
will be Chairman Øyvind Hovland and CEO John E. Skajem. Viewers may send in
questions before the presentation to investorrelations@huddlestock.com

If you would like to participate, please follow the below link to the webcast: 
https://inqrate.com/xtravideos/huddlestock-hudl-presentasjon-6-mai-2021/ 

Please find enclosed presentation material with supplementary information
regarding Huddlestock and Visigon, the strategic rationale for the acquisition
and pro forma financial information for the combined company.

For questions, please contact investor relations.
CONTACTS:

John E. Skajem, CEO, +47 418 87 412, jes@huddlestock.com 

Cecilia Luras, Director of Strategy & IR, +44 75 0090 5131, col@huddlestock.com 


About Huddlestock Fintech:
Huddlestock Fintech AS was listed on Euronext Growth Market 26 November 2020, as
Norway's first fintech company to be publicly traded. Huddlestock Fintech is a
company that develops unique software as a service-solutions for digitizing work
processes for custody banks, asset managers and trading venues.

The open, compliance-optimized and data centric platform allows our customers to
offer a differentiated real-time product that reduces cost and increases
efficiency. Huddlestock Fintech's technology enables end-to-end digital services
such as onboarding, client communication, reporting, order execution and
portfolio management, all executed on the same platform.

Huddlestock has two main products: Apex (Custody) and Bedrock (Connectivity).
Apex is a software as a service-solution that links custody services with asset
managers and individual investors. Bedrock provides a white label solution that
is primarily a product for financial services firms wanting to add low
cost-efficient trading and investing services to their client web and app
offerings. Huddlestock's client base includes BNP Paribas, Baader Bank, Donau
Capital and Tradegate Exchange.
For more information, please visit www.huddlestock.com. 

The information included in this announcement is defined as inside information
pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation article 7 and is publicly disclosed
in accordance with MAR article 17. 

The announcement is made by the contact persons set out above.

Click here for more information

© Oslo Bors ASA, source Oslo Stock Exchange