Staff of Coin Software will be made offers to join Rubik Financial Group as part of its conditional agreement to purchase part of the financial planning software group.
Rubik chairman Craig Coleman told InvestorDaily that offers would be made to close to 50 Coin employees.
"Just under 50 staff will be all made offers on equal or better terms to come across to Rubik," Coleman said.
Asked whether he was confident staff would join the listed software provider from the Macquarie-owned group, he said he believed they would.
"So far we've had a couple of briefing sessions [with Coin staff] . [and] we think nearly all of them will come across," he said.
As well as making offers to existing Coin staff, he said Rubik would also announce a new hire to head up its part of Coin.
"We're in discussions and close to finalising that and that will be a well-recognised name in the industry," he said.
Rubik informed the market yesterday of its conditional agreement to acquire 100 per cent of the share capital of Coin and all associated intellectual property rights from Macquarie for a purchase price of up to $23.75 million.
Under the agreement, Coin would be separated into two parts, with Rubik acquiring the institutional side of the business and Macquarie retaining the contracts with boutique financial planners for the distribution and ongoing development of financial planning software under a licence from Coin.
Coleman said Rubik had been on the lookout for an acquisition of this nature for some time, with Coin providing the group with "a mature client base rather than a new piece of software without any clients".
"We think we can continue to service those clients well and improve the product," he said.
When asked whether there was any concern Coin clients would jump ship to the group's rival, IRESS, he said there was always a risk, however, as all clients were subject to contract, he was confident Rubik had enough time to prove itself.
Macquarie Adviser Services head Tony Graham said the separation of the Coin offering "played to the strengths" of both companies.
"The separation of Coin into two distinct institutional and boutique offerings will create a great opportunity for more focused growth for both parts of the market," Graham said.
Macquarie would be working to release Coin version 3.9 in July and would be working closely together with Rubik to ensure the continued development and release of Coin version 4.0 towards the end of the year, he said.
"Upon completion of the agreement, Macquarie's financial planning software offering for [independent financial adviser] clients will operate under a new name, to be announced later this year," Macquarie said in a statement.
While Macquarie intends to roll out its side of the Coin software under a new as yet unrevealed name, Coleman said at this stage Rubik would retain the Coin name.
"There is a commitment there for an update [to Coin] that is already in train . there is always work that people will require around things like FOFA (Future of Financial Advice)," he said.
"We'll listen to the requirements but we have some ideas of our own and the main area we can get some quick improvement is around the user interface."
He said improvements around useability, such as creating mobile access, was one of the areas the group was examining.
"All the systems and software we run are heavily dependent on the right level of security - that is our base skill," he said.
On 14 June, Rubik informed the market it had entered into confidential discussions with an unknown entity regarding a potential acquisition of a financial services software business.
