Fidelity National Financial today announced it has repurchased more than 2.5 million shares of FNF common stock from Willis Stein & Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm, and J.P. Morgan Chase, as escrow agent for the former stockholders of Aurum Technology Inc. FNF acquired Aurum in March 2004.
FNF paid total consideration of $112.2 million, or $44.35 per share, for the 2,530,346 shares of stock, a discount to the closing price of FNF’s common stock on Dec. 13, 2004. Willis Stein was the lead investor in an investment group that owned Aurum Technology at the time of FNF’s acquisition of Aurum. Willis Stein received its shares of FNF common stock as a portion of the purchase price of Aurum.
“We announced last week that we intend to implement a stock repurchase program once the recapitalization of Fidelity National Information Services is complete,” said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer William P. Foley II. “While that transaction has not closed, we do have current stock repurchase authorization and this opportunity with Willis Stein presented FNF an efficient means to repurchase a large block of stock through resources already available to the company. We continue to believe that the repurchase of FNF stock is an attractive use of our capital that provides immediate value for FNF stockholders. This transaction will also immediately save FNF approximately $25 million, as we will not pay the announced special $10 cash dividend on these repurchased shares. We are still committed to utilizing proceeds from the recapitalization of Fidelity National Information Services for the repurchase of additional shares of FNF stock.”
Fidelity National Financial Inc. is a provider of products and outsourced services to financial institutions and the real estate industry.
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