Wholesale lender IOU Financial has completed its previously announced divestiture to 9494-3677 Québec, a corporation created by a group composed of funds managed by Neuberger Berman, funds managed by Palos Capital, and Fintech Ventures Fund.
The funds managed by Palos Capital also include Palos IOU, a newly formed company consisting of certain affiliates of the former and certain former shareholders, directors and officers of IOU Financial.
Under the terms of the deal, 9494-3677 Québec has acquired IOU Financial for C$0.22 ($0.16) per share in cash.
Now that the transaction has been finalised, the shares of IOU Financial will be delisted from the TSX Venture Exchange and the wholesale lender will become a private company.
Established in 1939, Neuberger Berman is a private and independent investment manager, which handles strategies including equity, fixed income, quantitative and multi-asset class, private equity, real estate and hedge funds.
Palos Capital is a boutique financial services firm that primarily operates through two subsidiaries, namely Palos Wealth Management and Palos Management while Fintech Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm.
IOU Financial announced its divestiture to the newly created corporation in July 2023.
According to the firm, the consideration represented a premium of 83.3% to the closing price of shares on 13 July 2023 and a 90.6% premium to the 30-day volume-weighted average price of shares for the period ended on 13 July 2023.
IOU Financial offers rapid access to growth capital to small businesses through a network of preferred brokers across the US and Canada.
Its platform connects to several data sources, aggregating and automatically processing hundreds of data points on a business in seconds.
The company claims to have originated over $1bn, comprising more than 11,000 loans to small businesses throughout the US and Canada since 2009.
