acquisition of London Scottish Invoice Finance (LSIF) from London
Scottish Bank (LSB) for approximately £28.5m.
LSIF, the invoice discounting and factoring subsidiary of LSB,
caters for the small to medium-sized enterprise sector operating
from offices in Telford and Goring near Reading.
At its year end October 31 2007 LSIF had total assets of £27.2m,
net assets of £3.4m and contributed some £2.5m of profit to LSB’s
overall loss before taxation.
The management of LSIF will transfer to Hitachi Capital as part of
the acquisition, including Steve Smith, managing director and
regional sales directors of LSIF, Robert Crumbley, Andrew Norton
and David Bond.
The disposal is part of LSB’s decision to refocus on its debt
purchase and debt collection business, and to reduce the capital
employed in its lending divisions. The proceeds from the sale will
be used to reduce LSB’s net borrowings.
Hitachi Capital will pay consideration of around £9m in cash in
respect of the share capital of LSIF. This represents a premium of
£5.3m to the expected net assets at completion of £3.7m. In
addition, Hitachi Capital will pay LSB around £19.5m for various
intra-group loans between LSB and LSIF.
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