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Blue Prism agrees 1,275p cash offer from SS&C and drops backing for Vista bid

Published: 11:22 01 Dec 2021 GMT

Blue Prism Group PLC -

Blue Prism Group PLC (AIM:PRSM) has recommended a 1,275p per share cash offer from the hedge fund SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:SSNC) and has withdrawn its previous backing for a 1,250p bid from the US private equity group Vista Funds.

The SS&C offer values the robotic process automation (RPA) software specialist at £1.24bn and represents a 53.2% premium to the Blue Prism closing price of 832 pence on 27 August 2021, the day before the start of the Vista offer period.

Blue Prism first agreed a 1,125p bid from Vista on 28 September. SS&C then announced on 16 November that it was considering making an offer for Blue Prism.

This led Vista to increase its offer to 1,250p per share, which received the backing of Blue Prism on 25 November.  

Blue Prism said in today's statement that after considering various aspects of SS&C’s bid it has concluded that it represents a superior offer for Blue Prism's shareholders compared with the Vista Offer.

SS&C is the world's largest hedge fund and private equity administrator. It combines end-to-end expertise across financial services operations with software and solutions to service customers in the financial services and healthcare industries.

Commenting on the acquisition, Blue Prism chairman and CEO Jason Kingdon said the opportunity to combine its business with SS&C will provide it with access to significant capital resources and investment in R&D as well as SS&C's 18,000 customers.

“The combination ensures that we remain at the forefront of the next generation of intelligent automation and can continue to provide innovative products and services,” he said.

Bill Stone, chairman and CEO of SS&C, added: "A core part of SS&C's value proposition is to drive efficiencies for our customers, and Blue Prism is another lever for our customers to gain those efficiencies.

“In conjunction with Chorus, SS&C's intelligent automation system, Blue Prism will accelerate value delivery through automation of increasingly complex tasks.

“The combination of Blue Prism's market leading RPA solutions, and SS&C's top position in the financial services and healthcare industries, we believe, will yield significantly improved results."

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