Solium and Morgan Stanley Global Stock Plan Services to Partner

 - Solium's equity plan administration technology platform, Shareworks^®, to support
Morgan Stanley's Global Stock Plan Services business -

- Solium to host conference call at 8:00am ET -

CALGARY, Nov. 17, 2016 /PRNewswire/ - Solium Capital Inc. ("Solium" or the "Company") (TSX: SUM), the leading global provider of software-as-a-service for equity administration, financial reporting and compliance, today announced that it has entered into a definitive license agreement with Morgan Stanley. Under the agreement, Solium's industry leading stock plan administration platform will become the equity administration technology supporting Morgan Stanley's Global Stock Plan Services ("GSPS") business for U.S. listed corporations and corporations that are existing under U.S. laws or have headquarters in the U.S. Morgan Stanley will continue to manage all of the service and support functions provided to these corporate clients and associated employee participants. 

"This dynamic partnership will advance our commitment to continued leadership in the global stock plan business," said Chris Randazzo, Chief Information Officer and Head of Institutional Wealth Solutions, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. "By combining the extensive range of Morgan Stanley's wealth management services with superb technology from Solium, one of the fastest growing global fintech companies focused on equity plans, we look forward to delivering an exceptional service experience to our global stock plan clients and their employees."

"This milestone agreement in the U.S. marketplace is a strong endorsement of Shareworks as the premier cloud-based technology platform for global equity plan administration," said Marcos Lopez, Solium's Chief Executive Officer. "The Shareworks platform's modern architecture, rich feature set and international capabilities was a key differentiator for Morgan Stanley as it looked for a technology solution that would support its share plans business. This partnership with Morgan Stanley is our largest partnership, and first with a major wealth manager in the United States. We look forward to working with Morgan Stanley and further enabling its leading stock plans business."

Under this "Private Label" arrangement, Morgan Stanley will continue to provide all aspects of its service delivery to its clients, including relationship management, plan administration, wealth management services, trade execution, workplace education and executive services. Solium will support Morgan Stanley's efforts through: providing all aspects of the technology infrastructure and service; supporting the use of the software; delivering training systems; implementation expertise; technical support to Morgan Stanley's sales efforts; and jointly working together on the product roadmap to ensure it is tailored to meet the requirements of Morgan Stanley's customers.  

Morgan Stanley's corporate clients will benefit from a new and best-in-breed global administration platform and participant portal. They will gain significant capabilities provided by Shareworks - a modern Software as a Service (SaaS) platform - significantly increasing client access and functionality, including the ability to create adhoc reports and do as much of the day-to-day administration of the equity programs as they choose directly through the SaaS platform - supported by interactive online training modules and comprehensive step-by-step certification programs.  Enabling corporate clients through Shareworks will be supported by Morgan Stanley's service management team. Morgan Stanley also gains the ability to bring new modules and functionality, including add-on modules such as employee tax mobility, integrated Section 16 forms filing, global compliance and private market capabilities.

This new Private Label partnership with Morgan Stanley will require a material up-front investment by Solium in its Shareworks platform, incremental to the Company's ongoing regular research and development investment that Solium currently spends. The required development and technology integration work has already commenced and will continue for the next 24 months. Not only will this ensure that the Morgan Stanley client experience remains seamless, but it will accelerate additional functionality and automation for all Shareworks clients. This will further increase the advantage that Shareworks brings over the other technology platforms in the industry. 

Under the terms of the agreement, Solium will designate Morgan Stanley as a preferred provider of wealth management services to existing Solium clients in the U.S. This opportunity for Solium's U.S. clients could further enrich the experience they receive when working with the Shareworks platform.

Solium will support Morgan Stanley in all aspects of the migration process, including developing automated tools that will assist in ensuring that no changes are required for Morgan Stanley's clients, including their integration points into Morgan Stanley. Once migration is complete, the annual fee revenue run rate for Solium is estimated to be USD $18 million. Solium expects the profitability of this business, once migrated, to be consistent with the average profitability of its business on all of its other segments.

"We believe that a continued focus and investment in the capability of Shareworks will ensure it remains the strongest global stock plan administration platform," added Marcos Lopez. "Our relationship with Morgan Stanley will further reinforce this goal and enable increased acceleration of the features and capabilities we are able to offer our clients and partners."  

Due to the size and scope of this partnership, Solium expects incremental investment, predominantly in research and development, of between USD $10 and $15 million over the next 24 months. In addition, the Company anticipates expenditures associated with client conversion and expansion of infrastructure.

Conference Call Details:

About Solium Capital Inc.

Solium Capital Inc. (TSX: SUM) provides cloud-enabled services for global equity administration, financial reporting and compliance. From offices in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe and Australia, our innovative software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology powers share plan administration and equity transactions for more than 3,000 corporate clients with employee participants in more than 100 countries. Follow us @Solium and visit us at solium.com.

Morgan Stanley is a leading financial services firm providing investment banking, securities, wealth management and investment management services. With offices in more than 43 countries, the Firm's employees serve clients worldwide including corporations, governments, institutions and individuals. For further information about Morgan Stanley, please visit www.morganstanley.com.

Certain statements included or incorporated by reference in this press release constitute forward-looking statements or forward-looking information under applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking statements or information typically contain statements with words such as "anticipate", "believe", "expect", "plan", "intend", "estimate", "propose", or similar words suggesting future outcomes or statements regarding an outlook. Specific forward-looking statements in this press release include statements with respect to the revenues and profitability of the Morgan Stanley relationship, continued investment in Shareworks^®, and the growth of the relationship with Morgan Stanley. Such forward-looking statements or information are based on a number of assumptions which may prove to be incorrect, including assumptions with respect to the completion of the development of the Shareworks^® relationship, research and development costs, the ability of the Company to identify, hire, train, motivate and retain qualified personnel, the Company's ability to maintain or accurately forecast revenue from and costs of its products and services, and the competitive environment in which the Company operates. Although Solium believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements or information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements or information because Solium can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. The forward-looking statements and information are based on Solium's current expectations, estimates and projections, and are subject to a number of significant risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated, including developments costs, general business and economic conditions, actions of competitors and partners, the regulatory environment and product capability and acceptance. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information.

SOURCE Solium Capital Inc.