i-flex buys US firm for $11.5 m

BANGALORE: Financial solutions provider, i-flex Solutions Ltd., has announced the decision to buy SuperSolutions Corporation, a US-based specialized consumer lending software provider in an all cash deal for $11.5 million. The board of both the companies had met up and taken a decision on this.

Upon approval by SuperSolutions’ shareholders, SuperSolutions will become a 100 per cent owned subsidiary of i-flex. The existing management team of SuperSolutions will continue with the company to run the business.

"This is the first step in the execution of our inorganic growth strategy," said Rajesh Hukku, Chairman and Managing Director of i-flex. "By opening up the consumer finance market segment for us, SuperSolutions will create another growth engine for the company."

SuperSolutions is a well-established software provider to specialized consumer lending institutions. Its flagship product, Daybreak Lending Suite, is a universal lending platform (ULP) that enables financial institutions to manage the lending process from origination through servicing and collections. Daybreak enables lenders to achieve significant reduction in costs and improvements in productivity through its ability to manage multiple lending products. Built on the latest generation technology, the software meets the demanding consumer lending requirements of the US market.

The product is used by top-tier US clients, such as Harley Davidson Financial Services, Inc., Mitsubishi Motors Credit, Hyundai Motor Finance, US Small Business Administration, Onyx Acceptance Corporation, and Crescent Bank & Trust.

Industry research reports indicate a growing interest by consumer lending firms to move from point product applications to find a more universal lending platform. Such a solution is needed to integrate pricing, servicing, securitization and collections for mortgages, specialized loans, lines of credit and leases. According to Celent Communications - the market opportunity is also large, given that only 56 per cent of all banks in the U.S have some type of automated loan origination system in place representing approximately 5,000 banks and likely to reach a penetration rate of 70% by 2005.

"The Consumer Lending Market is burgeoning and this acquisition is a great move for i-flex. Daybreak is a latest generation platform and should help open this new segment in the advanced markets. Daybreak and FLEXCUBE together make a powerful offering for banking and finance institutions," said Octavio Marenzi - CEO and founder of Celent Communications.

R Ravisankar, CEO International Operations and Technology, i-flex solutions, said, "this acquisition greatly strengthens our product portfolio and will help to accelerate our penetration of the US market. We are also excited by the opportunity to tap the global market in this space by leveraging our global sales and partner network."

Darshan Karki, CEO, SuperSolutions said, "we are delighted to be part of the i-flex group. i-flex’s market reach and credibility will greatly enhance the market opportunity and growth prospects for our suite of state-of-the art, comprehensive solutions for the growing market of consumer lending."