Van der Moolen in 43 mln euro securities finance buy
AMSTERDAM, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Dutch brokerage Van der Moolen Holding NV (VDMN.AS) said on Saturday it has signed a letter of intent to buy a stake in Dutch securities finance company GSFS BV for 43.3 million euros ($54.2 million) in cash and shares.
Van der Moolen added it will appoint GSFS Chief Executive Frank Vogel to its management board.
"We expect that this transaction will already have a positive impact on our profit in 2009," Van der Moolen CEO Richard den Drijver said in a statement.
Van der Moolen, which has worked in partnership with the privately owned GSFS since October 2007, will take a 49.9 percent stake in GSFS Asset Management BV and a 33.3 percent stake in Global Securities Arbitrage BV.
GSFS will hold minority stakes in the asset management and arbitrage operations. Shareholder GT1 Investments LLC will also keep a stake in the arbitrage business.
The companies expect to reach a final agreement before the end of this year and payment, which will be spread over three years, will consist of 14.15 million euros in cash and 29.15 million in the issue of Van der Moolen shares.
In July, Van der Moolen completed a 16.5 million euro share buyback, buying back 4.4 million euro shares for future employee share incentive plans and "future potential acquisitions".
The company returned to profitability in the first quarter after seven straight loss-making quarters, having undergone significant restructuring.
It sold its unprofitable New York Stock Exchange specialist market making activities last year as part of a new focus on the European retail banking market and said in August it will shut its Online Trader service for semi-professional traders.
It is also opening an office in Hong Kong.
Its shares closed up 3.7 percent at 2.61 euros on Friday, but are down 45 percent in the past three months. (Reporting by Aaron Gray-Block, Editing by Peter Blackburn)
