Temenos has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Viveo Group, the French core banking systems provider. The price of the acquisition is $81 million (£50.7 million), which equates to approximately 3.8x 2010 expected maintenance revenues. The deal is being financed entirely by existing debt facilities and is expected to be strongly accretive to earnings from 2010. The deal is not subject to any further approval.

Established in 1983, Viveo Group serves over 750 financial institutions in more than 35 countries, with more than 400 customers in France, and has around 410 employees.  Of Viveo's total client base, around 350 customers use its core banking software and it counts banks like BNP Paribas, Caisse Dépargne, Société Générale, Crédit Agricole, Banques Populaires and La Compagnie Financière Edmond de Rothschild among its customers. Its employees are based chiefly in France, Romania, Belgium and Geneva.

In addition to growing its sales channel and client base, the acquisition will  also give Temenos access to complementary intellectual property and domain expertise. As well as core banking software, Viveo Group also has standalone solutions for payments, compliance, securities and anti-money laundering, which will be used by Temenos to strengthen or supplement its existing systems. In particular, Viveo's anti-money laundering and payments products are used globally by Tier 1 banks.

In its last reported year, to 31 December 2008, Viveo generated revenues of approximately $65 million (£40.7 million), with high single-digit margins.

Management intends to give detailed guidance about the expected impact of the acquisition on the group's revenues and earnings for 2010 at the time of its full year results announcement, provisionally scheduled for 16 February 2010 after the market close.