Financial difficulties at IDT lead to division sale

Financial planning software provider Investment Data Technologies (IDT) has announced it will sell its non-core business services, following the appointment of a voluntary administrator last week.

The business services division of the company collects fund management data locally and in New Zealand, providing unit price information to IDT clients and third party planning groups.

According to IDT managing director Danny Rodgers, the company will now concentrate on its general insurance business, U’Insure, and traditional financial planning software while sub-contracting data collection.

U’Insure is a web-based general insurance administration system, which aims to reduce the time and cost of processing general insurance policies.

Rodgers said: “U’Insure makes previously unprofitable insurance policies viable for the intermediaries who handle them.”

He added: “U’Insure has been in pilot for 12 months and now it is fully operational. We have agreements with a large underwriter and several distribution channels, and have commenced marketing the service to mortgage brokers, financial planners, GI brokers and other professional service organisations.”

SV Partners’ Terry van der Velde has been appointed as the voluntary administrator. He said he would be responsible for turning the business around.

“Over the last two years, the company has spent $6 million from working capital on its lifetime objectives-based financial planning software and U’Insure business, and this has been a major contributor to its current cash flow difficulties.

“What the directors have done is put a mechanism in place so that time does not beat them.”

He added that the IDT directors already had a strategy for the business going forward and SV Partners would now assist them in its implementation.