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Bravura on acquisition trail

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By Vishal Teckchandani
  •  
3 minute read

Bravura Solutions shares enter trading halt as it seeks to acquire an unnamed business.

Bravura Solutions was suspended from trading yesterday after the company revealed it may make an acquisition.

Sydney-based Bravura gave no indication of what type of business it was going to make a bid for.

The deal is expected to be revealed tomorrow, a Bravura statement to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) said.

Making an acquisition would be in breach of the conditions Ironbridge Capital set out in its own takeover proposal for Bravura on May 2, 2008.

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Ironbridge renewed its $272 million all-cash takeover for Bravura just last Friday.

"Bravura's strategy has always entailed acquisitions," Morningstar equity analyst James Cooper said.

"There is no reason why that should change while there is a takeover on the table."

Last year, Bravura acquired Garradin, a developer of investment management software for $10 million.

Ironbridge renewed its $1.73 per share proposal for Bravura last week despite a recent profit downgrade and the state of its directors' shares.

Bravura directors' Iain Dunstan and Simon Woodfull have a combined 43.5 million of Bravura shares rendered inaccessible because they bought it using margin loans provided by the collapsed broker Lift Capital.

Lift entered into voluntary administration on April 10 after its margin lending business model failed.

Woodfull and Dunstan's shares have since been in the custody of investment bank Merrill Lynch, Lift's secured creditor.

Bravura administers over 18 million pension accounts on behalf of 180 companies.