Fintel buys remaining Mortgage Brain shares for £38.4 million
Key Facts
Fintel announced on 23 October 2026 that it would buy the remaining shares in Mortgage Brain Holdings for £38.4 million, net of cash acquired, according to a deal announcement published via Investegate. The company will pay £28.9 million in cash at completion, with £9.5 million deferred for 18 months from the completion date. It said the initial payment would be funded from existing financial resources. The deal gives Fintel the remaining ownership of Mortgage Brain, in which it had taken a stake two years earlier. The move puts software and data businesses linked to the mortgage sector at the centre of the figures the company presented to justify the deal.
Fintel Labs bought a non-controlling 5.8% stake in the ordinary shares of Mortgage Brain Holdings in March 2024 for £1.5 million, according to Fintel's half-year results published by the UK Financial Conduct Authority's National Storage Mechanism. The purchase of the remaining shares marks a shift from a minority investment to full ownership of the company, according to the announcement. Mortgage Brain operates in mortgage-market technology, including software, data and industry events. Fintel said customers contracted with Mortgage Brain account for around 40% of UK residential first-charge mortgage and buy-to-let applications. The figure places the company's customer base at the heart of a broad market activity, as Fintel described it in its announcement.
Fintel said a recently renewed long-term commercial partnership supports the rollout of AI-enabled workflow and productivity solutions to more than 3,000 adviser licences. This points to an established distribution channel for solutions covered by the software and data business, according to the company's description of the partnership. The announcement did not specify, in the facts available here, the revenue value of those solutions or their separate contribution to results. In an accompanying management change, Mortgage Brain chief executive Zaahid Bilgrami will lead Fintel's software and data division. The appointment places an executive from the acquired company at the head of the division comprising the group's technology and data business.
Fintel expects Mortgage Brain to generate revenue of about £12 million in 2027, including £10 million from software and data products and £2 million from mortgage events. It also expects EBITDA to reach about £3.8 million in the same year, and the deal to be earnings-enhancing in financial year 2027. These estimates provide a picture of the mix the company expects between technology products and events, and the business's contribution to profitability. They remain forward-looking forecasts issued by Fintel in its acquisition announcement. The available announcement did not compare these figures with Mortgage Brain's separately reported historical performance.
The deal comes as Fintel's first-half 2026 results showed growth in its continuing business: revenue rose 5.3% to £38.6 million, from £36.7 million in the first half of 2025. Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations increased 16.6% to £12.4 million, from £10.6 million in the comparable period, according to results published by the UK Financial Conduct Authority's National Storage Mechanism. Those results provide financial context for the group ahead of the acquisition, but relate to Fintel's continuing operations and do not represent Mortgage Brain revenue. The deal therefore adds to a group that recorded growth in revenue and adjusted earnings in the first half, according to the published figures.
On financing after the deal, Fintel said pro forma leverage would stand at 2.54 times immediately upon completion, and that it expects it to fall below 2.5 times by year-end. This links the acquisition's effect on debt with the company's expectation of reducing the ratio during the remainder of the year. The announcement did not provide, in the facts available here, further detail on the path of the decline or a more precise timeline than year-end. For 2027, the metrics set out by the company are revenue of about £12 million and EBITDA of about £3.8 million for Mortgage Brain, alongside an expectation that the deal will enhance earnings in the same financial year. These forecasts, together with the leverage estimate, remain the company's stated indicators for measuring the expected impact of the deal.