Compliance and business support service provider SimplyBiz has halted its plans for a sale of the business or floating on the stock exchange.
In Janaury this year it was reported by The Sunday Times that chairman Ken Davy was considering selling or floating a stake in the group, with the deal at that time rumoured to be worth about £100m.
Simplybiz then confirmed it was working with corporate finance advisers BDO to consider future options.
Neil Stevens, joint managing director of SimplyBiz said that the board of directors have for some time been exploring a wide range of options for the next phase of the company’s growth but at this stage was still exploring its options.
He said: “We have had a number of serious approaches over the years, even more so in the last six months, and particularly from private equity. In addition we have been contacted by organisations offering other funding models and also those organisations that assist companies in making a public listing.
“We are still exploring our options and at this stage we have not asked anyone to take a proposal forward. A vibrant and innovative market for growth funding has highlighted some other options we had not particularly considered prior to looking at this properly and we are still working on some of these ideas.”
He added that the firm was determined to ensure that it built for the long term, putting customers, management and staff first, rather than ceding control to an external shareholder.
“In the final analysis we believe that given the extraordinary amount of change and opportunity currently available in the financial services sector that we are better able to serve our customers and clients as a totally independent business.
“Specifically as regards an IPO, whilst we have not ruled it out completely at some time in the future, we do not anticipate exploring such an event for at least a couple of years.”
ruth.gillbe@ft.com
