Sirius Financial Solutions

Sirius Financial Solutions is a Birmingham based insurance software provider with a large customer base of brokers and small insurers across more than 50 countries, but with main markets in the UK, South Africa and the Americas. Following an extended period of share price underperformance the company appointed Brewin Dolphin as broker and nominated advisor.

Like many IT stocks Sirius Financial Solutions saw its share price performance hit hard following the end of the dot.com boom as investors lost confidence in the growth expectations driven by technology. When Brewin Dolphin was appointed the share price was less than 100p reflecting a single digit price earnings ratio and a discount to its peer group. Brewin Dolphin and the executive management of Sirius Financial Solutions believed that this rating significantly undervalued the prospects of the company.

Brewin Dolphin’s Technology team work worked closely with the management to refine and market the investment proposition for the Group. High recurring revenues, the Group’s extensive customer base of more than 17,000 brokers, strong cash generation and well invested intellectual property in the Group’s technology based systems were all fundamental elements of the investment case. In addition the sector was consolidating rapidly and the customer base and technology of Sirius Financial were expected to be highly attractive assets.
Brewin Dolphin introduced the Company to a range of its blue chip institutional clients to market its revised investment proposition, and a highly supportive investor base was quickly established. The Company was eventually acquired by SSP Holdings plc in May 2007 for over £43m which represented a premium of over 100% to the price at the time of Brewin Dolphin’s appointment.