Avaloq to become part of NEC

Avaloq is being taken over by the Japanese NEC Corporation. As announced by both companies, the Japanese IT group is seeking to acquire 100 percent of the Avaloq shares. At the moment, the anchor investor Warburg Pincus holds a stake of 45 percent in Avaloq. The rest of the shares are held by the founders and employees of the company. The transaction is set to be closed in April next year, with the value of this deal provisionally set at 2.05 billion Swiss francs.

As the company specializing in digital banking solutions and technology for asset management, which was founded back in 1985, writes in its press release, it will continue to operate as an independent entity headquartered in Switzerland. The takeover offers the two companies “the best of both worlds”, according to the press release.

The combination of the companies’ shared vision, technological strengths, and global presence will accelerate Avaloq’s long-term growth, global expansion and value creation strategy. NEC will focus its efforts on solutions that use information and communication technologies to create advanced infrastructures. In this context, robust financial institutions play a crucial role in NEC’s vision for smart cities. For this reason, Avaloq is “uniquely qualified to complement NEC”. For its part, Avaloq has now found a “perfect new home” in the form of NEC, as Jürg Hunziker, CEO of Avaloq, states in the press release.

In addition, Avaloq will work together with NEC’s global research centers, among others in Heidelberg, Germany, in order to anticipate future trends as early as possible and develop smarter solutions for clients. NEC has “great ambitions” for Avaloq in this field. Moreover, Avaloq will work towards achieving “democratization of wealth management” by way of digitalization. Investments and banking services, which until now have been the sole domain of exceptionally wealthy clients, are to be made accessible to mass investors with smaller or average-sized asset portfolios. “This opens up a highly attractive segment of new clients for private banks and wealth managers globally”, according to the press release.

“With this step I give Avaloq in the best hands possible”, comments Francisco Fernandez, founder of Avaloq, in the press release. “Talking to NEC’s top managers it became clear to me, that they share my ambition for Avaloq to continue to shape the future of the financial industry by continuing to invest heavily in R&D”, he adds. Nevertheless, Fernandez also sensed “the cultural fit, caring about customers and people, striving for excellence and highest quality standards”, which he claims are precisely the values that both Switzerland and Japan embody.