Integrated SaaS treasury and risk management provider GTreasury announced this week it will acquire Australian risk-software company Visual Risk. The acquisition will bring needed coverage for risk to the company. GTreasury said it is making good on its promise to expand and beef up its product offering after an infusion of cash from growth equity firm Mainsail Partners in October of 2017.
“We are excited about the value the integrated solution will bring to treasury departments around the world,” said Orazio Pater, CEO of GTreasury in a statement. “As the treasury function becomes more complex and strategic, treasury departments require comprehensive tools to provide analysis, visualization and reporting that address cash, risk management and compliance.”
Visualization has become a buzzword in corporate finance, as more companies look for better capabilities on things like post-trade visualization capability for trade benchmarking and bank analysis. At a NeuGroup Assistant Treasurers’ Group of Thirty (AT30) meeting this week, several members said it was encouraging that the company was investing risk analysis, as it was much needed in the company product line. Several members use the GTreasury platform for cash management and intercompany loans.
Despite some consolidation in the sector – recent notable acquisitions include ION’s takeover of Openlink this year and Reval last year – it remains a competitive space, and companies need to decide whether it’s better to acquire or be the target of a bigger brand. Choosing the latter has some risks, however. In ION’s case, many treasurers have been left wondering if the serial acquirer is eliminating competition or creating a one-stop treasury system; in either case, it means starving current offerings to support newer acquisitions. At the AT30 meeting, several members felt Reval would be the overarching system while offerings like Treasura and IT2 could get phased out. Wall Street Systems still has a large client base.
Meantime, GTreasury is in the acquirer camp and looking to differentiate itself by offer quality service to its clients, creating a comprehensive solution and continually improving on its SaaS capabilities. For instance, the company said that every two months, it will offer updates where treasurers can “benefit from continuous delivery of functionality and value.”
The addition of Visual Risk now allows GTreasury to offer corporations and financial institutions a way to “visualize, analyze, and make strategic decisions regarding the market risks associated with their businesses.” Richard Hughes, co-founder of Visual Risk said in a statement that the two companies already had a relationship, having worked closely as part of a partnership entered into last year. In teaming up, the company is now focused on putting together “an integrated product” and bringing it to the market “very soon.” Meantime the company will continue to service to current customers of each company.