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New York activist investor raises stake in Newry-based FD Technologies

Irenic Capital Management stakebuilding comes as FD Technologies moves to split itself into three separate companies

Activist investor Irenic Capital Management now holds 13.1 per cent of the shares in FD Technologies

Barry J Whyte
Tue Apr 9 2024 - 05:00

A New York-based activist investor has increased its stake in Newry tech firm FD Technologies, stock-exchange filings show.

Irenic Capital Management now holds 13.1 per cent of the shares in the business, having bought nearly €12 million worth of shares in the past fortnight.

The hedge fund has been building a stake in the Irish company since January, when it bought 5.8 per cent of FD’s shares. It then added to that position in March, pushing its holding to more than 10 per cent.

Irenic’s total stake in FD Technologies is now worth nearly €56.5 million, based on the company’s current share price of 1,308 pence (€15.24).

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The hedge fund, founded by Adam Katz and Andy Dodge, operates as an activist hedge fund, taking positions in companies in order to leverage that position into changes in a given company’s strategy or business plan.

According to its website, it “invests in public companies and works collaboratively with firm leadership” to “produce improvements in operating and financial performance that create long-term value for the company and its owners”.

It has in the past taken positions in companies such as Capricorn Energy, a London-listed natural gas producer in which it publicly opposed its plans to sell itself to an Israeli energy group after walking away from a planned merger with Irish-founded Tullow Oil, recommending instead a sale of its assets piecemeal. In the same year Irenic publicly opposed Rupert Murdoch’s plans to merge Fox and NewsCorp.

In July 2023 it called for Ken Hanna, chairman of restaurant group Wagamama, to step down, and called on the board to institute a strategic review with “all options on the table”. Earlier this year it took a position in aerospace company Barnes Group and called for the appointment of new members to its board, one of whom was Katz himself.

Irenic’s stake building comes just as FD Technologies has embarked on a major restructuring in which it intends to split itself into three separate companies by hiving off two of its biggest business units.

One of those will consist of its marketing technology division, MRP, which will be merged with a US firm called Contentgine. FD Technologies will hold a 49 per cent stake.

It has also announced it will sell off its technology and consulting arm, KX, though it said in a recent stock-market filing that it would “take a measured approach to the separation of KX and First Derivative, particularly with respect to the timing of any transaction”.

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