Houlihan Lokey Advises Verdane

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that Frontier Bidco Ltd., a newly formed company indirectly and wholly controlled by Verdane Fund Manager AB in its capacity as manager of Verdane Freya XII Investments AB (Verdane), has completed its acquisition of Augmentum Fintech PLC (Augmentum) by way of a recommended scheme of arrangement. The transaction valued the entire issued ordinary share capital of Augmentum at approximately £185.7 million.

Under the terms of the acquisition, Augmentum shareholders will receive 111.0 pence in cash for each Augmentum share, representing a 27.0% premium to the closing price of an Augmentum share on 24 February 2026, the date the transaction was announced, and a 29.6% premium to the three-month weighted average closing price of an Augmentum share on 24 February 2026.

Verdane is a specialist growth buyout investment firm that partners with tech-enabled and sustainable businesses that help digitalise and decarbonise the European economy. Verdane has raised over €9 billion in capital and has made more than 200 investments in fast-growing businesses since 2003.

Augmentum, which was listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange in March 2018, was the U.K.’s first publicly listed investment company focused exclusively on the FinTech sector. Augmentum invests in early and later-stage fast-growing FinTech businesses across the U.K. and wider Europe and has invested in more than 29 businesses since its IPO, including Tide, Iwoca, and Zopa.

Verdane believes that Augmentum will be better able to achieve its growth and valuation aspirations with improved access to capital under private ownership. Verdane intends to utilise its investment expertise, experience, and access to capital to optimise the value and liquidity potential of Augmentum’s portfolio and support the continued growth of its portfolio companies.

Houlihan Lokey served as exclusive financial advisor to Verdane on this public takeover transaction.

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