Price comparison service Moneysupermarket.com has acquired rival company Financial Services Net in a £9million deal.
The Welsh company will pay an initial £4.6m, rising to up to £9m depending on performance, for the Coventry-based operator of Financialservices.co.uk.
The company said the purchase would allow the firm to expand across the UK and beyond.
Chief executive Peter Plumb told Business Post: “The acquisition of FSN will enable us to further expand our brand offering to new customer segments in the money and insurance business.”
Financial Services Net (FSN) was controlled by the Panesar family and the purchase will incur expenses of about £600,000 for Moneysupermarket this year.
Moneysupermarket said trading in the first few weeks of the fourth quarter had been strong, with revenues remaining more than 10% ahead of the same period last year.
Earnings before adjustments rose 16% from the same period last year, while visitor numbers were “broadly flat”.
It comes after we reported in July how moneysupermarket.com said it expected a small fall in first-half underlying earnings as investment and tough travel markets offset revenue growth in money and insurance products.
The group said earnings before interest, tax and depreciation were likely to be about £18m for the six months to June 30, down from £18.6m in the same period last year.
The slight fall in earnings was due in part to higher spending on advertising and product development.
However, Mr Plumb said Moneysupermarket.com had continued to “make good progress” in the second half of the year.
He added: “Revenues in the third quarter were up more than 10%, with the insurance and money verticals benefiting from the site developments made earlier in the year coupled with our Haggle Hero campaign.”
