A US company has agreed to acquire International Personal Finance for £543 million

The agreement follows months of negotiations between the two parties; at the end of July, IPF first disclosed talks with BasePoint.

BasePoint, based in New York, will pay 235p per share in cash for IPF, which is listed on the FTSE 250. This represents a 31% premium over the share price on July 29, prior to the announcement of negotiations.

It adds to the litany of companies that have either been acquired or defected to foreign markets in the last 12 months, dealing the London market yet another setback.

IPF, a Leeds-based company with 1.7 million clients who frequently lack access to credit from traditional banks, provides small consumer loans in nine European and Mexican nations.

IPF has no clients in the UK, even though company is listed and has its headquarters there.

Before being demerged and traded independently in 2007, it was established in 1997 as a part of Provident Financial.

"IPF is a company we've followed for a while and have been continuously impressed by its positioning across nine different geographies as a leading provider of credit to underbanked and underserved individuals," stated BasePoint CEO Eric Schneider.

"We think BasePoint is in a good position to assist IPF in building on its strengths and further developing its business model as a unique provider of consumer credit, given our extensive experience in consumer speciality finance in the US."

"The IPF board has been considering its options to ensure that the market value better reflects the business's opportunities and prospects, having consistently traded at a substantial discount to comparable international businesses over the past ten years," stated Stuart Sinclair, chairman of IPF.

"We acknowledge that the acquisition enables IPF shareholders to monetise their whole investment for cash at a fair price, even though the board still believes in IPF's strategy and long-term prospects on an independent basis.

"We think BasePoint's ownership and dedication to achieving IPF's mission of fostering financial inclusion and a better world will benefit the company."