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(Sharecast News) - Time Finance said on Monday that it has agreed to be taken over by Bentley Park - the parent company of specialist asset-based lender Ultimate Finance - in a £55.1m deal.
Under the terms of the transaction, Time Finance shareholders will receive 59.1p per share in cash. This is a premium of around 12.6% to the closing share price on Friday and a 23.5% premium to the volume weighted average price for the three-month period ended 14 August.
Bentley Park said the combined business would be well-positioned as a "significant" independent alternative lender with a combined net loan book size of nearly £650m, based on the companies' respective unaudited loan books as at 30 June 2026.
Time Finance chief executive Ed Rimmer said: "The Time Finance board believes there is a strong strategic fit between the two businesses, the combination of which will create a broader platform, introduce the benefits of additional scale and provide additional resources that can support future growth, without losing the focus on customers and introducers that have made our business great in the first place.
"The success of Time Finance to date has been built on the quality of its people; the experience and expertise of our colleagues, the relationships and service provided to our clients and customers and the support of our valued brokers and introducers. Ultimate Finance has been very clear about the value it places on these relationships and on the expertise that exists across Time Finance.
"We believe those things are a large part of what attracted them to the company in the first place and, with the offer for the company now announced, we look to the future with a considerable amount of optimism and excitement."
At 1005 BST, the shares were up 8.9% at 57.16p.
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