Injury claims: end-to-end outsourced offering
AIM-listed Quindell Portfolio has now signed a binding agreement to buy Liverpool law firm Silverbeck Rymer, subject to receiving its alternative business structure (ABS) licence and Financial Services Authority approval, it announced today.
It will pay £12m in cash and issue 96,666,666 Quindell shares, which will be subject to lock-in arrangements ranging from 12 to 36 months. Quindell’s shares closed at 5.38p yesterday, valuing those shares at £5.2m.
When the deal was , the total cost was said to be £19.3m, satisfied by £10.25m in cash and the issue of up to 120.8 million shares.
Silverbeck Rymer is predominantly a personal injury firm and the acquisition is part of Quindell’s bid to put together an end-to-end outsourced motor claims offering for insurers. In a tweet this morning, Quindell chairman and chief executive Rob Terry said the binding deal came “just in time for a number of major outsourcing deal decisions to be confirmed”.
Last month, Quindell said it had won a £120m contract with one of the UK’s largest, albeit unnamed, insurance intermediaries, to provide a broad range of services – including legal – to policyholders of more than half of the top ten UK insurers.
Quindell also announced that Silverbeck Rymer chairman Jim Rymer will be joining the group’s strategy and integration advisory board.
Mr Terry said: “We are delighted to have reached this agreement, which represents a key step in the building of our combined insurance outsourcing offering, and provides the board with further confidence of being able to meet market expectations for 2012.
“I would like to welcome Jim to our strategy and integration advisory board, where I am sure his industry expertise and experience in the sector will prove extremely valuable in helping to secure delivery of our current pipeline of insurance outsourcing contracts which is both significant and growing.”
Mr Rymer added: “Having continued to work closely with Quindell since our first announcement in January, we continue to see significant benefits in being part of the enlarged group. Quindell is a major player in the insurance space and we firmly believe in its non-conflict approach to working with insurers.
“Its positioning as thought leader and belief in improving margins whilst lowering costs for the industry sits well with our philosophies of working alongside insurers to help combat fraud and other areas of cost escalation, whilst being an active promoter of fairness and protector of consumer rights and championing industry change.”
