Robinhood Retains Interest in Ziglu But For Half the Agreed Valuation

Commission-free trading platform Robinhood has renegotiated with the Board of Directors of UK fintech firm, Ziglu on its plans to continue with the proposed acquisition. However, they’re now offering half the estimated cost. 

Robinhood announced earlier in the year that it has reached an agreement to acquire Ziglu at a price of $170 million. In this new offer, the price is pegged at $72.5 million. 

Robinhood cited the current market conditions as one of the reasons for its reduced offer.

The new offer has been confirmed by Ziglu’s Chief Executive Officer, Mark Henderson who says the deal is "the best deal for all stakeholders, especially customers." 

He affirmed that the latest proposition has been ratified by the board as well as the company’s shareholders.

‍"In the week of 18th July 2022 Robinhood approached the Company and provided a clear message to the board that it, for several reasons described below, does not now intend to close the transaction on the terms of the previously agreed SPA," 

... said Henderson in the letter to shareholders on Seedrs, a crowdfunding platform where Robinhood wrote down the deal size.

Ziglu offers a variety of products and services including crypto to cash, foreign exchange and interest on deposits. 

Robinhood has been eyeing the UK market for a while. Its previous attempts to launch directly have not really materialized. 

The Ziglu deal is now considered its best bet in the long-sought approach to establish its presence in the UK.

Rather than cancel the deal in response to recent market strains that haveushered in a bout of bankruptcies and plummeting valuations, Robinhood decided to slash its offer.

"Robinhood cited a range of reasons for this change, including the general crypto (winter) market impacting valuations negatively by 50%-90%, the valuation impacts of notable failures including Celsius, BlockFi, and Voyager, and ongoing macroeconomic and geopolitical risks," 

Henderson added.

Robinhood remains amongst the biggest hit outfits as its shares and general business outlook has been greatly impacted in the Year-to-Date (YTD) period. There were reports about the potential of the company’s acquisition by FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried after the crypto billionaire took a 7.6% stake in the company.