Vista Equity Will Acquire DH Corp., Merge It With Misys Ltd.

Vista Equity Partners LLC has agreed to buy Canadian financial services provider DH Corp. and will combine it with financial software company Misys Ltd. to create a “financial technology powerhouse.”

Bloomberg Technology reports that the deal values DH Corp. at around C$2.73 billion ($2.03 billion), which is an 11 percent premium above the company’s closing price on Friday of C$23.04 a share.

As the Toronto-based company’s check-making business has declined, so have DH Corp.’s shares, falling 37 percent in the year through Friday. But once the deal with Vista was announced, DH Corp.’s shares rose 9 percent to C$25.12.

The company services 8,000 banks, specialty lenders, credit unions, governments and corporations, with more than 5,500 employees around the world and revenue of almost C$1.7 billion in 2016. But as the need for its services has decreased, DH Corp. has focused more on moving into the financial technology sector. In 2015, it acquired Fundtech Ltd., a payment technology provider, for $1.25 billion.

Vista’s transaction for DH Corp. is valued at C$4.8 billion, including debts. Vista, which has offices in Austin, Texas, Chicago and San Francisco, took Misys privately in 2012 for £1.3 billion ($1.6 billion), but canceled its planned initial public offering in October due to market conditions.

Morgan Stanley, Barclays Plc and Citigroup Inc. served as advisers to Vista on the transaction, while Kirkland & Ellis and Goodmans provided legal advice. DH Corp. worked with Credit Suisse Group AG and Royal Bank of Canada, with legal counsel from Stikeman Elliott and Cravath Swaine & Moore.