AVANT Corporation takes minority stake in UK financial analytics firm

The Tokyo Stock Exchange-listed holding company of ZEAL, DIVA and Internet Disclosure Co, providers of accounting, business intelligence and outsourcing services for chief financial and investment officers, becomes Metapraxis's second largest shareholder

Japan-based AVANT Corporation, the owner of a group of technology companies focused on accounting, planning and management, is the new minority owner of Metapraxis.

As a part of the deal, Metapraxis, a financial analytics technology firm based in the UK, and AVANT will develop and market a Japanese version of Empower, its financial performance solution. 

The Tokyo Stock Exchange-listed holding company of ZEAL, DIVA and Internet Disclosure Co, providers of accounting, business intelligence and outsourcing services for chief financial and investment officers, becomes Metapraxis’s second largest shareholder.

Metapraxis says AVANT evaluated a variety of domestic and overseas companies with a view to acquiring products and solutions through mergers and acquisitions or alliances before settling on a partnership with the financial analytics technology firm.

Simon Bittlestone, chief executive of Metapraxis, says the investment will help the firm to expand its go-to-market activities, product suite and cloud platform.

Bittlestone continues: “The opportunity to enter the Japanese market will further our ambition of becoming the global financial analytics provider of choice. Avant’s finance consolidation technology is highly complementary to Metapraxis Empower, our own analytics platform, and together we can offer finance teams a complete digital solution driving automation and improvement.”

Tetsuji Morikawa, president and group chief executive officer of AVANT, adds: “The main product of Metapraxis, Empower, is a powerful platform for planning, analysis and visualising performance within group companies and commands a strong blue-chip client base in the European and US markets.”

“Metapraxis is an organisation with innovation and teamwork at its heart, helping to realise its commitment to providing the best solutions to its customers, which are shared values with the Avant Group.”

“These shared values have led to productive negotiations as an alliance partner. Converting Empower into Japanese and providing it to the Japanese market is an important part of realising the Avant Group’s mission of ‘Spreading Accountability’. With this collaboration, Avant Group will expand its growth in the Japanese market and take a significant step toward expanding into overseas markets.”

Image: Shutterstock

Mark Dugdale