Acquisition will help accelerate planned launch of MogoTrade, commission free stock trading All figures in Canadian $
Mogo Inc., a digital payments and financial technology company, today announced it has entered into a binding letter of intent (“LOI”) to acquire 100% of Fortification Capital Inc. (“Fortification”), a Canadian registered investment dealer, for a combination of cash and common shares of Mogo (“Mogo Shares”). The acquisition of Fortification would bring OEO (order execution only) registration capabilities which is a necessary regulatory requirement for Mogo to offer stock trading to its members.
Fortification is a registered investment dealer and a member of the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (“IIROC”). Among several benefits of the proposed acquisition, Mogo would acquire the necessary licenses, registration and technology – including an order management system and market data processing – to accelerate the development of the Company’s planned commission free stock trading solution.
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“We continue to see a secular shift to digital wealth platforms, and our goal at Mogo is to build the leading digital wealth platform in Canada, which will include zero-commission stock trading and a simple and intuitive modern user experience,” said David Feller, Mogo’s Founder and CEO. “The proposed acquisition would provide us with a registered investment dealer platform, as well as regulatory and technology capabilities – key building blocks for our trading offering. We are moving forward aggressively with the development of MogoTrade which is expected to launch in 2021.”
Greg Feller, President of Mogo, added: “This acquisition is consistent with our plans to vertically integrate around our core offerings and builds on our recent acquisition of Moka, which accelerated our expansion in the Wealth area.”
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Pursuant to the LOI, Mogo has agreed to acquire all of the issued and outstanding securities of Fortification (the “Transaction”) from the sole shareholder of Fortification (the “Vendor”) in exchange for: (i) a cash payment of $500,000; (ii) a cash payment equal to the working capital of Fortification plus repayment of the subordinated debt owed to the Vendor at the time of closing, anticipated to be approximately $550,000; and (iii) 75,000 Mogo Shares. The Transaction is expected to be completed pursuant a definitive share purchase agreement (the “Purchase Agreement”) which will reflect the terms and conditions of the LOI and other detailed terms of the Transaction. One-half of the Mogo Shares to be issued to the Vendor at closing will be subject to a six-month escrow restriction and the other one-half will be subject to a three-year escrow restriction.
The Transaction is subject to regulatory approval, including the approval of the Toronto Stock Exchange (“TSX”), IIROC and the Québec Autorité des marchés financiers (“AMF”), in addition to other customary closing conditions for a transaction of this nature.
It is anticipated that Fortification will continue to operate as a stand-alone wholly-owned subsidiary of Mogo following closing of the Transaction.
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