Financial Objects Plc, the Birmingham, UK-based banking software company, claims it has advanced its product development plans by between one and two years after agreeing to pay up to 15m pounds ($24m) for Global Financial Systems Ltd (GFS), a privately-owned banking software company.
Though originally formed to distribute a mainframe banking back office system, GFS developed its own banking system called Diamond, which incorporates retail branch banking and an integrated ledger and management information system. Like Financial Objects’ own ActiveBank platform, Diamond is Microsoft NT component based.
GFS had revenue of 4.2m pounds ($6.7m) in its last financial year though a high R&D spend on developing the Diamond software kept pre-tax profit down to 57,000 pounds ($91,200). It floated on the London Stock Market at the end of 1998 and offers competition to the UK’s biggest software company Misys Plc in the banking and financial software sector. Directors say the deal will have a neutral effect on earnings in the currently financial year but enhance earnings from 2000 onwards.
