Dye & Durham soars on first acquisition since failed buyout

Dye & Durham struck an agreement to buy a payments business from Telus Corp. in the company’s first deal since a proposed management buyout was scrapped in October.

Canadian software firm Dye & Durham Ltd. struck an agreement to buy a payments business from Telus Corp. in the company’s first deal since a proposed management buyout was scrapped in October. 

The $500 million (US$391 million) acquisition of Telus Financial Solutions will give Dye & Durham control of software that handles about 140 million bill and tax payments a year. The Toronto-based company is also buying technology that connects Canadian banks and other lenders to law firms when a new mortgage is being arranged or an existing one is discharged. 

Dye & Durham jumped 9.3 per cent to $42.25 in Toronto, its largest gain since May 31, when the company disclosed that a management group had proposed a takeover.  

Matt Proud, Dye & Durham’s chief executive officer, said the company plans to use the Telus payments infrastructure to help move money on residential real estate deals. Currently, it’s only being used to help process home sales in one Canadian province: Quebec. Expanding that across the country will make real estate transactions more efficient, he said, by cutting down on paperwork. 

On most housing transactions, “you’re talking stacks of paper, many many checks cut on every transaction and couriered. It’s prone to fraud and it’s highly inefficient,” Proud said in an interview. “Putting it together with what we do, we’re really in the future going to drive a ton of value for our customers.”