Re Agreement
04 November 2003 - 6:01PM
UK Regulatory
RNS Number:6304R
Focus Solutions Group PLC
03 November 2003
3rd November 2003
Focus Solutions Group plc
Milliman USA Inc acquires the assets of Focus Solutions Inc and signs a separate
licence agreement for goal:technology with Focus Solutions Group plc
In April 2003, following a review of the US market, Focus Solutions Group plc
("Focus") announced the sale of 51% of the issued share capital of its US
subsidiary; Focus Solutions Holdings Inc ("FSI"), (which owns 100% of Focus
Solutions Inc). The sale was completed on 31st March 2003 to the US management
of Focus Solutions Inc for a nominal consideration. Under the terms of the
agreement, Focus retained a 49% investment in FSI which ensured that Focus would
benefit from any future success of FSI without the obligation for continuing
investment.
Whilst progress has been made in developing solutions for the US life assurance
market, no significant revenues have been achieved, and the directors of FSI
have concluded that the business would benefit from the infrastructure of a
larger organisation with an established presence in the US market. We are
therefore pleased to announce that Milliman USA Inc has completed an agreement
to acquire the assets and liabilities of Focus Solutions Inc for a nominal
consideration.
As part of the acquisition agreement, Milliman has signed a new licence
agreement for goal:technology under which it will make royalty payments to Focus
for the use of this technology based on the subsequent revenue performance of
the business over the next three and a quarter years. Given the lack of trading
history of the new business being established pursuant to this agreement, it is
not currently possible to predict what these sums may be, but Focus will report
further to shareholders as and when such payments become known.
Enquiries
Focus Solutions Group plc
01926 468300
John Streets - Chief Executive
Martin Clements - Finance Director
Notes to Editors:
About Focus Solutions Group
Focus Solutions Group is a leading provider of customer management solutions for
the financial services industry. Underpinned by goal:technology, its innovative
XML toolkit, Focus delivers a paperless sales process across multiple channels
to market including IFA portals, websites, extranets, direct sales and call
centres.
With specific expertise in Point of Sale (POS) systems, Focus developed RIO,
Norwich Union's POS solution that currently has 900 users including Norwich
Union's direct sales force and tied building societies. RIO is currently being
rolled out to a further 1,000 sales advisers to support bancassurance sales via
Norwich Union's Joint Venture partner, The Royal Bank of Scotland to the Royal
Scottish Life Assurance, NatWest and Ulster Bank's sales teams. Norwich Union
and Focus recently won the 'Best use of IT in insurance' category at the
Financial Sector Technology Awards 2003 for this project. Focus also developed a
POS solution to support The Zurich Advice Network (ZAN) in the sale of
deregulated products that is currently being used by 3,500 advisers.
Focus has a blue chip customer base of financial services organisations
including Friends Provident, Legal & General, Norwich Union, Paymentshield,
Prudential, Scottish Equitable, Scottish Provident, Scottish Widows, Skandia UK
Group, Standard Life, Winterthur and Zurich, as well as industry portals,
including Assureweb, The Exchange, IFAengine and Webline.
The Group announced its year-end results on 12.06.03, which saw revenue increase
by 30% to #6.6m. For further information on Focus Solutions, please visit
www.focus-solutions.co.uk.
About Milliman
Milliman USA, whose corporate offices are in Seattle, serves the full spectrum
of business, financial, government and union organisations. Founded in 1947 as
Milliman & Robertson, the company has 30 offices in the United States as well as
offices in Bermuda, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Brazil, and the U.K. Milliman USA
employs approximately 1,700 people, including a professional staff of about 750
qualified consultants and actuaries. The firm has consulting practices in
property and casualty, employee benefits, healthcare, life insurance, and
investment consulting.
It is a founding member of Milliman Global, an international organisation of 22
independent actuarial and management consulting firms located in principal
cities worldwide. Milliman Global member firms have more than 100 offices in 30
countries and territories employing over 2800. For further information, visit
www.milliman.com.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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