Monthly Archives: April 2019

Transaction reinforces Hg’s position as Europe’s largest software investor, with Visma’s Enterprise Value now €6.5 billion

HG Capital

18 April 2019. Hg today announces that Hg Saturn and its investors have agreed to a further c.€640 million equity investment in Visma, a leading provider of business-critical software to private and public enterprises in the Nordic, Benelux and Baltic regions. The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) will also make a further investment of c.€110 million in Visma as part of this transaction.

Hg is already the majority owner of Visma, having led the original delisting of Visma from the Oslo Stock Exchange in 2006.  Hg has been the lead or co-lead investor in Visma for the last 13 years.  Cinven, who first invested in Visma in 2014, sold part of its stake to Hg and co-investors in 2017 and is now selling the entirety of its remaining shareholding in Visma as part of this transaction.  The transaction values Visma at an enterprise value of over €6.5 billion.

Hg is Europe’s largest investor in private software business and has supported Visma’s management to build a world-class company through several stages of growth and innovation since 2006.  Most importantly Visma management, backed by Hg, started to invest in cloud and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) in 2009.  This early investment has given Visma a significant competitive advantage, having transitioned, over the last decade, from a largely on-premise software provider to being Europe’s largest provider of cloud-delivered SaaS to businesses.  Today Visma has over $1billion of SaaS revenues delivered to more than 500,000 customers, with over 70% of Visma’s revenues coming from cloud-delivered SaaS products or services.

During Hg’s ownership period over the last 13 years, Visma’s world-class management team has delivered consistent revenue and profit growth of more than 20% per year, evolving from a business valued at under €450 million in 2006 into one valued at over €6.5 billion today.

Following completion of the transaction, Hg’s managed funds will own c.63% of Visma, alongside other significant co-investors including GIC, ICG, Montagu and CPPIB.

Nic Humphries, Senior Partner and Head of the Hg Saturn Fund said: “Working closely with Øystein Moan and his team over the last 13 years has been a pleasure.  Quite simply they are a world-class team, and great fun to work with.  They have built Europe’s leading SMB SaaS business. This is a testament to their technical competence and willingness to invest early and consistently for the long-term in new technologies that, in turn, bring great benefits to their nearly 1 million customers.  Hg were able to recognise the potential of SaaS well ahead of most investors because of our longevity and focus on the sector.   We are proud to have been by Øystein and Visma’s side every step of the way on this exciting journey for the last 13 years and many more in the future.”

Øystein Moan, CEO and Chairman of Visma said: “Hg is Europe’s largest and most consistent investor in software and SaaS businesses over the last 20 years, having led more software deals than any other private investor in Europe.  To have a partner with this background is a significant advantage for any management team and this experience has helped Visma on every step of our growth.  They have been, consistently, our largest investor over the last 13 years, demonstrating what long-term support really means.  I’m delighted that two world-class investors, Hg and CPPIB, have decided to invest further in the company.”

This investment re-enforces Hg’s position as Europe’s leading software investor.  Hg has led over 40 “platform” software investments and more than 200 bolt-on acquisitions, delivering industry-leading investment returns to its investors.  Successful software/SaaS investments include: Addison Software, Allocate Software, Computer Software Group, IRIS Software, P&I, RAET, Sequel, Sovos and over 30 others.

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HENDRIX GENETICS and SALMONES AYSEN partner to advance COHO SALMON GENETICS in Chile

NPM Capital

Animal genetics market leader Hendrix Genetics and salmon producer Salmones Aysen have announced the signing of a Genetic Service Agreement. With this agreement in place, Hendrix Genetics will stimulate the Coho salmon breeding and genetics program to advance product performance for the Chilean market.

Hendrix Genetics, a NPM Capital portfolio company, will direct the program and will integrate innovative technologies, such as genomic selection. In addition, Hendrix Genetics will support broodstock and egg production management and will analyze data collected from breeding and processing. The partnership will allow Salmones Aysen to tap into the expertise and resources of a global, multi-species breeding company.

This partnership is a natural complement to Hendrix Genetics’ owned Atlantic salmon breeding and egg production operations in Chile. The Atlantic salmon operations serve a growing demand for eggs based on high health status, proven commercial performance and year-round availability.

Pablo Baraona, Managing Director of Salmones Aysen said: “Having established a solid production base in Coho salmon over a number of years, we wanted to engage with the global leader in animal and aquaculture genetics to take our business to new heights. We believe that Hendrix Genetics will help us to improve our production and outputs and facilitate our growth plans for the next ten years.”

Neil Manchester, Managing Director Aquaculture of Hendrix Genetics states: “We are delighted to work with Salmones Aysen. Like Hendrix Genetics, Salmones Ayes is a family company with strong values and an entrepreneurial spirit, and we are convinced that this partnership will deliver significant results.”

About the companies
Hendrix Genetics, headquartered in the Netherlands, is a leading company in the fields of animal genetics. It has a multi-species focus, with core activities in the breeding of layers, turkeys, guinea fowl, pigs, salmon, trout and shrimp. Backed by a strong portfolio of leading brands, Hendrix Genetics provides expertise and resources to producers in more than 100 countries, with operations and joint ventures in 25 countries and nearly 3,400 employees worldwide. Hendrix Genetics is developing an increasing global presence in aquaculture breeding having been a pioneer in the development of genetic and genomic technologies since the 1990’s, with Atlantic salmon breeding and egg production operations in Scotland and Chile under the brand name Landcatch, trout breeding and egg production operations in the USA, Chile and UK under the brand name Troutlodge, and shrimp breeding operations in Hawaii, Malaysia and Ecuador under the brand name Kona Bay.

Salmones Aysen is one of the largest dedicated Coho salmon producers in Chile, with a reputation for quality production and premium branded products. It has offices in Chile (Santiago and Puerto Montt), Japan (Tokyo) and USA (Seattle). Through a team of seasoned professionals in the salmon industry, Salmones Aysen controls every stage of the productive chain, guaranteeing the highest quality standards demanded by different markets around the world.

Also read: ‘Hendrix Genetics launches new products for Chilean salmon industry’

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NPM CAPITAL acquires 35% stake in OHPEN

NPM Capital

First and long-time investor Amerborgh sells a part of its stake in Ohpen to NPM Capital that upon the transaction will have a 35% stake in Ohpen. Amerborgh wanted to sell this stake to finance ongoing and future projects, like the arts and culture centre ‘het HEM’ in Zaandam, the Netherlands. Ohpen is a fast-growing Fintech company. The Ohpen SaaS, cloud native core banking platform administers retail investment and savings accounts for banks and other financial institutions.

Rutger Ruigrok, Managing Director at NPM Capital explains: “The technology sector is an increasingly important focus point in our investment portfolio. Already, we have had Ohpen in sight as one of the most promising technology companies that we have seen in the past few years. We are impressed with their achievements over the past ten years: a cloud native core banking engine, an impressive customer base and a wonderful foundation for further growth. We are very enthusiastic about now being part of their future.”

Having the new shareholder on board means a broadening of our options to finance future growth, although Ohpen can still advance with the growth capital that we raised early 2018, says Matthijs Aler, CEO of Ohpen. “With Amerborgh and now also with NPM, we have a well-balanced long-term shareholder structure that enables Ohpen to realize all of its future growth ambitions. I am really looking forward to working with the NPM team.”

Ohpen is the world’s first cloud native core banking provider and became a market leader in the Dutch midsize banking market over the past few years. In the near future, Ohpen will extend its services to large banks and the pension market.

Michel Vrolijk, Managing Director at Amerborgh Netherlands is happy with the fact that the company decided to invest in Ohpen ten years ago. “Our expectations at the time have always been exceeded. We hope to be a partner of Ohpen’s incredible adventure for a long time to come.”

About Ohpen
Ohpen is the first SaaS core banking engine in the world that runs entirely in the cloud. Ohpen liberates its customers from their legacy systems, making them more flexible, safe, scalable and compliant. Founded in 2009 by a team of experienced bankers and software developers, the Ohpen platform administers savings and investment accounts for clients such as Aegon, Nationale-Nederlanden, Volksbank and other banks, investment institutions and insurers. The company employs over 120 people in the Netherlands and Spain.

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Servelec announces sale of Servelec Technologies to Laurel Solutions

Montagu

Servelec confirms the sale of its subsidiary Servelec Technologies, a market-leading provider of remote monitoring systems, secure SCADA systems, and business optimization software, to Laurel Solutions, a holding company which works with leading businesses to grow the smart use and development of industrial technology.

Servelec
Servelec, a leading software provider to the NHS and local government for over 20 years, will now focus on the healthcare, social care and children’s services markets. With a strategy to support the provision of Digital Care, Servelec’s software helps NHS trusts to deliver against the NHS 10 year plan for digital maturity and supports local authority social work, youth services and education practitioners in accessing the right information at the right time to deliver improved outcomes.

Neville Davis, Chairman of Servelec commented; “We are pleased to confirm the sale of Servelec Technologies. The company has a strong strategy in place to further develop the business and we wish David Frost, Managing Director of Servelec Technologies, and the team every success for the future.

“Servelec is now wholly focussed on our core public sector markets of NHS and local government. As these markets continue to integrate and share data to deliver improved care, we are working very closely with our customers to provide what they need for a joined-up future. Digital Care is at the heart of what we do; we are certain that this will enable the sectors we address to provide higher quality service in a more cost-effective manner.”

Servelec Technologies
“Servelec Technologies is a leading, global provider of connected remote monitoring and control solutions, helping clients and industries to realise their digital futures. The business is a leader in the UK and other water and wastewater markets, and a major player internationally in sectors including energy, transport and infrastructure. This investment further builds out our leading portfolio in remote asset monitoring and control.” said Martin Carter, CEO of Laurel Solutions. “We are excited to partner with Servelec Technologies’ highly talented management team, and plan significant investment in innovative products and solutions that will enhance their already outstanding offering.”

“We’re thrilled to have the backing of Laurel Solutions as we start a new chapter as a standalone business,” said David Frost, Managing Director at Servelec Technologies. “They bring not only the technical knowledge, but the business operations experience and capital resources that will be instrumental in our success and future growth.”

Categories: News

Transaction reinforces Hg’s position as Europe’s largest software investor, with Visma’s Enterprise Value now €6.5 billion

HG Capital

18 April 2019. Hg today announces that Hg Saturn and its investors have agreed to a further c.€640 million equity investment in Visma, a leading provider of business-critical software to private and public enterprises in the Nordic, Benelux and Baltic regions. The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) will also make a further investment of c.€110 million in Visma as part of this transaction.

Hg is already the majority owner of Visma, having led the original delisting of Visma from the Oslo Stock Exchange in 2006.  Hg has been the lead or co-lead investor in Visma for the last 13 years.  Cinven, who first invested in Visma in 2014, sold part of its stake to Hg and co-investors in 2017 and is now selling the entirety of its remaining shareholding in Visma as part of this transaction.  The transaction values Visma at an enterprise value of over €6.5 billion.

Hg is Europe’s largest investor in private software business and has supported Visma’s management to build a world-class company through several stages of growth and innovation since 2006.  Most importantly Visma management, backed by Hg, started to invest in cloud and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) in 2009.  This early investment has given Visma a significant competitive advantage, having transitioned, over the last decade, from a largely on-premise software provider to being Europe’s largest provider of cloud-delivered SaaS to businesses.  Today Visma has over $1billion of SaaS revenues delivered to more than 500,000 customers, with over 70% of Visma’s revenues coming from cloud-delivered SaaS products or services.

During Hg’s ownership period over the last 13 years, Visma’s world-class management team has delivered consistent revenue and profit growth of more than 20% per year, evolving from a business valued at under €450 million in 2006 into one valued at over €6.5 billion today.

Following completion of the transaction, Hg’s managed funds will own c.63% of Visma, alongside other significant co-investors including GIC, ICG, Montagu and CPPIB.

Nic Humphries, Senior Partner and Head of the Hg Saturn Fund said: “Working closely with Øystein Moan and his team over the last 13 years has been a pleasure.  Quite simply they are a world-class team, and great fun to work with.  They have built Europe’s leading SMB SaaS business. This is a testament to their technical competence and willingness to invest early and consistently for the long-term in new technologies that, in turn, bring great benefits to their nearly 1 million customers.  Hg were able to recognise the potential of SaaS well ahead of most investors because of our longevity and focus on the sector.   We are proud to have been by Øystein and Visma’s side every step of the way on this exciting journey for the last 13 years and many more in the future.”

Øystein Moan, CEO and Chairman of Visma said: “Hg is Europe’s largest and most consistent investor in software and SaaS businesses over the last 20 years, having led more software deals than any other private investor in Europe.  To have a partner with this background is a significant advantage for any management team and this experience has helped Visma on every step of our growth.  They have been, consistently, our largest investor over the last 13 years, demonstrating what long-term support really means.  I’m delighted that two world-class investors, Hg and CPPIB, have decided to invest further in the company.”

This investment re-enforces Hg’s position as Europe’s leading software investor.  Hg has led over 40 “platform” software investments and more than 200 bolt-on acquisitions, delivering industry-leading investment returns to its investors.  Successful software/SaaS investments include: Addison Software, Allocate Software, Computer Software Group, IRIS Software, P&I, RAET, Sequel, Sovos and over 30 others.

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Cinven agrees final realisation of Visma

Cinven

Successful realisation further strengthens Cinven’s industry-leading TMT track record

International private equity firm Cinven today announces that it has agreed to sell its remaining stake in Visma (‘the Group’) to Hg and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for an undisclosed consideration. This transaction represents Cinven’s final realisation of Visma, following its partial realisation to an Hg-led consortium in June 2017.

Visma is a leading provider of business-critical software including accounting, tax and payroll applications to small and medium sized enterprises (‘SMEs’), retailers and local authorities across the Nordic, Benelux and Baltic regions. Cinven’s TMT team identified Visma as an attractive investment opportunity given its market leading position in the Nordic region, delivery of mission-critical software to a wide customer base, subscription model with high recurring revenues and significant growth potential as customers migrate their legacy ‘on premise’ software applications to online cloud-based applications. Having followed Visma since 2008, Cinven ultimately invested in Visma in 2014.

Since 2014, Cinven has worked closely with Visma’s industry-leading management team and its co-shareholders to generate strong financial performance, with revenue growth of more than 25% per annum, alongside transforming the Group into a more “pure-play” cloud based solutions provider, driving a premium exit valuation for Cinven. Key achievements under Cinven’s ownership include:

  • Executing a successful bolt-on acquisition strategy, with more than 80 acquisitions completed in the Nordic, Benelux and Baltic regions;
  • Delivering strong underlying trading growth through investment in Visma’s marketing capabilities and infrastructure to capitalise on cross- and up-sell opportunities across Visma’s extensive product portfolio;
  • Accelerating the transition of the business from traditional ‘on premise’ software to cloud based solutions, with software-as-a-service (‘SaaS’) and SaaS-like revenues representing more than 40% of the business today (vs. c. 10% at acquisition); and
  • Rationalising the Group through the sale of non-core divisions, including Visma’s Hosting business, BPO business and certain divisions within its Retail business.

Chris Good, Partner at Cinven, said:

“Øystein and his outstanding team are creating quite simply the best financial and accounting-focused software business in Northern Europe. We have been proud to be part of the progress the company has made over the last five years, supporting over 80 acquisitions and investing behind an exciting expansion in both the regions in which it operates and its product portfolio.”

Øystein Moan, Group CEO of Visma, commented:

“It has been great working with Cinven. The Cinven team has demonstrated an excellent understanding of our business and the market and helped us reshape our organisation to drive significant growth. The business has been truly transformed into a leading SaaS business in Europe, and is in a very strong position today, largely as a result of the support from Cinven and our other co-investors.”

The successful realisation of Visma reinforces Cinven’s strong TMT track record, with recent realisations including Ufinet Group, HEG and Numericable. Alongside these successful realisations, Cinven’s TMT team has continued to actively invest in the sector, with recent acquisitions including RTB House, One.com, Ufinet International and Allegro.

Completion of the transaction is expected to take place in Q2 2019. Cinven was advised on this transaction by Freshfields.

 

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ACTIVA CAPITAL acquires MEDISYS, software publisher in the medico-social sector, alongside entrepeneur Guillaume Bouillot

Activa Capital

Activa Capital has acquired a majority position in Medisys, together with Turenne Santé, the entrepreneur
and new CEO Guillaume Bouillot and the management team. Bernard Chevalier, founder, is supporting the
operation and remains a shareholder.
Medisys is a leading software publisher in the home-care field and for institutions specialized in dependent
persons.

After nearly 30 years at the head of the company based in Aix-en-Provence and created in 1991, its founder
Bernard Chevalier hands over the management to Guillaume Bouillot, a software entrepreneur.
The new management team will build on values that have made the company successful while providing
the means to accelerate the digitalization of personal services. The challenge is to support the
transformation of organizations that bring together care institutions, home support, medical/nursing
services and aids to daily life. Medisys’ development is based on its recognized expertise in the care of
dependent persons and on its technological innovations making it possible to streamline the operators’
organization and secure the patient follow-up. The company also intends to intensify the deployment of
traceability systems for hygiene and cleaning services in sensitive environments, particularly in the medical
sector, with its Mobiserv solution.
Thanks to 17 years of experience between the creation and sale of Eudonet (a publisher of CRM solutions),
Guillaume Bouillot brings a new energy to the company with a desire to accelerate by fostering links with
customers and the ecosystem.
Activa Capital and Turenne Santé will enable Medisys to strengthen its positions through strategic
acquisitions to complete its offer.

With this transaction, Activa Capital is making the 9th investment of its latest fund, Activa Capital Fund III.
Guillaume Bouillot, President of Medisys Holding, said: “I was very impressed by Activa Capital’s unique
ability to support entrepreneurs and bring its skills and energy to bear on their ambitions. The association
with the sector specialist Turenne Santé is a key asset for this transition from one entrepreneur to another
in a consolidating sector”.

Bernard Chevalier, Founder of Medisys, added: “This is a new momentum for Medisys, which has the solid
fundamentals to pursue and expand its rapid development and satisfy our most demanding clients in the
medico-social sector”.

Christophe Parier and Alexandre Masson, Partners of Activa Capital, completed: “We were impressed by
Medisys’ history and positioning. The arrival of Guillaume Bouillot will enable the company to carry out its
ambitious development projects. This acquisition is in line with Activa Capital’s strategy of investing in
companies that are at a turning point in their growth to help them accelerate their development”.

Mounia Chaoui, Associate Director, Turenne Santé stated: “We are delighted to support Guillaume Bouillot
and the Medisys teams in the takeover of the group, in partnership with Activa Capital. Medisys has
developed a remarkable offer that facilitates the development of home services, at the heart of new
healthcare policies that we are addressing with Capital Santé 2”.

Participants
New CEO
Corporate lawyer: Allen Overy (Raphaël Bloch)

Investors
Activa Capital: Christophe Parier, Alexandre Masson, Frédéric Singer, Elliot Thiéblin
Turenne Santé: Mounia Chaoui, Grégory Dupas
Financial Due Diligence: PwC (David Willems, Pierre-Mikhaël, Kévin Barrier)
Strategic Due Diligence: PMSI (Remi de Guilhermier, Florence Royer, Lucinda Nicholson)
Social and legal Due Diligence: Hogan Lovells (Stéphane Huten, Paul Leroy, Alexandre Jeannerot)
M&A advisor: Bryan Garnier (Thibaut De Smedt, Pierre Lafitte, Alexandre Brestin)
Corporate lawyers: Hogan Lovells (Stéphane Huten, Paul Leroy, Alexandre Jeannerot), Paul Hastings
(Sébastien Crepy)
Financing lawyer: Hogan Lovells (Alexander Premont, Luc Bontoux, Adrien Gaudron)

Founder
Vendor Due Diligence: Exelmans (Stéphane Dahan, Manuel Manas, Matthieu Réglade, Philippe Pelet)
M&A advisor: Edmond de Rothschild Corporate Finance (Philippe Duval, Marguerite Mell, Lucrèce
d’Assignies, Aurélien Rivière)
Corporate lawyer: Lamartine Conseil (Vincent Libaud)
Senior financing
Senior debt: Crédit du Nord (Bertrand Descours, Amandine Proux), Crédit Agricole Provence Alpes Côte
d’Azur (Christophe Lejeune, Violaine Mahier), BNP Paribas (Mathias Ronzeaud)

About Activa Capital
Activa Capital is an independent private equity company, owned by its partners, characterized by a proactive
strategy of supporting growth (organic and external). It currently manages more than €500 million on behalf
of institutional investors by investing in French SMEs and Mid-Caps with high growth potential and an
enterprise value ranging between €20 million and €100 million. Activa Capital supports its portfolio
companies to accelerate their development and international presence, often through active build-up
programs.
To learn more about Activa Capital, visit activacapital.com

About Turenne Capital Group
With more than €220 million under management, including more than €100 million for the FPCI Capital
Santé 2, Turenne Santé supports healthcare companies in their development and transmission challenges.

As an independent private equity player in France, the Turenne Capital group manages more than €1 billion.
Its teams, composed of 55 professionals, including 38 investors, based in Paris, Lille, Lyon, Marseille and
Metz, support more than 250 companies employing more than 23,000 people in the health, hospitality,
new technology, distribution and innovative services sectors.
To learn more about Turenne Capital, visit www.turennecapital.com

Press contacts
Christophe Parier Alexandre Masson Christelle Piatto
Partner Partner Communications Manager
+33 1 43 12 50 12 +33 1 43 12 50 12 +33 1 43 12 50 12
christophe.parier@activacapital.com alexandre.masson@activacapital.com christelle.piatto@activacapital.com
Mounia Chaoui Josepha Montana
Partner Communications Manager
+33 1 53 43 03 03 +33 1 53 43 03 03
mchaoui@turennecapital.com jmontana@turennecapital.com

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Gaw Capital Partners and Beyond Ventures Announce Equity Investment in Series A Round Financing for Candao.com

Gaw Capital

April 18, 2019, Shanghai – Real estate private equity firm Gaw Capital Partners, through the private equity fund of its operation company, together with Hong Kong-based venture capital fund Beyond Ventures, today announced an equity investment in the Series A round fund-raising totalling RMB100 million (US$14.9 million) for Candao.com, a Chinese start-up specialising in food delivery management service. Chinese mobile internet-focused investment fund MFund also participated in this round of fund-raising.
Founded in April 2014, Candao.com is managed by Guangzhou Candao Information Technology Co Ltd. The company provides one-stop solutions for Chinese medium and large-sized chain restaurants, including SaaS delivery management systems, distribution systems, and business data analysis centers.
As of March 2019, Guangzhou–based Candao.com has served over 200 medium and large-sized chain restaurant brands, including Haagen-Dazs, Burger King, Papa Johns and Costa. The company currently provides services to nearly 30,000 offline restaurants across more than 300 cities in China, with over RMB1.4 billion (US$209 million) in monthly gross merchandise volume.
Proceeds of this fund-raising will be used to strengthen the research and development of the company’s systems and explore applications of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI).
Humbert Pang, Managing Principal and Head of China for Gaw Capital Partners, said, “Gaw Capital continues to embrace and support the technology platforms that will enhance the operational efficiency, especially those operators related to real estate sector. The food delivery sector is booming in China and has become part of most people’s daily life. However, many F&B operators are still lagging behind on the resources to deal with the new technology ecosystem, which makes Candao an ideal easy one-stop platform for them.”
Beyond Ventures was founded in 2017 by Hony Capital, Hong Kong-based venture capital fund e-Garden Ventures in partnership with locally-grown serial entrepreneurs. It has invested a total of RMB240 million (US$35.88 million) in 13 companies including Chinese AI unicorn SenseTime, DNA Testing company Prenetics, CMOS chip maker SmartSens Tech, Hong Kong taxi-hailing app HKTaxi, and Hong Kong Online to Offline e-commerce platform YOHO.
Gaw Capital has over 13 years of experience investing in and/or turning around commercial properties in Greater China, including Hong Kong. The firm successfully transformed and repositioned properties such as 133 Wai Yip Street in Hong Kong, a former 12-storey industrial building turned creative office space; and Sky Bridge HQ, a mixed-use project located in the heart of Linkong Economic Park in Shanghai. In recent years, the firm also purchased 29 local Hong Kong shopping malls from Link REIT, which it intends to reposition and revitalize into attractive hubs of community life.
– End –
About Gaw Capital Partners
Gaw Capital Partners is a uniquely positioned private equity fund management company that focusing on real estate markets in greater China and other high barrier-to-entry markets globally.
Specializing in adding strategic value to under-utilized real estate through redesign and repositioning, Gaw Capital runs an integrated business model with own in-house asset management operating platforms in retail, hospitality, property development and logistics. The firm’s investments span the entire spectrum of real estate sectors, including residential development, offices, retail malls, hospitality and logistics warehouses.
Gaw Capital has raised five commingled funds targeting the Greater China and APAC regions since 2005. The firm also manages value-add/opportunistic funds in Vietnam and the US, a Pan-Asia hospitality fund, a European hospitality fund and also provides services for separate account direct investments globally.
Gaw Capital has raised equity of USD$ 11.4 billion since 2005 and commands assets of USD$ 18.2 billion under management as of Q4 2018.
Contacts:
Gaw Capital Partners
Camille Lam
Tel: +852 2583 7717/+852 9884 9198
Email: camillelam@gawcapital.com
www.gawcapital.com
Citigate Dewe Rogerson
Ryan Mellor
Tel: +852 3103 0130/+852 5315 2737
Email: ryan.mellor@citigatedewerogerson.com

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Carlyle Cardinal Ireland (CCI) Sells Payzone to AIB and First Data for €100m

Carlyle

New owners to build on growth achieved under CCI

Ireland – Carlyle Cardinal Ireland has announced that Payzone, one of Ireland’s largest providers of payment solutions, is to be acquired by a newly-formed joint venture established by AIB Group plc (AIB) and First Data Corporation. The joint venture will acquire a majority stake in Payzone from existing shareholders, including Carlyle Cardinal Ireland Fund (CCI), for an enterprise value of up to €100 million.

CCI, the private equity fund established by The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) and Cardinal Capital Group, acquired a majority shareholding in Payzone in March 2015 and the company has grown strongly during the four years of CCI ownership. CCI worked closely with the management team to diversify the business and develop the company into a multichannel payments provider, employing 90 people. 

Today Payzone’s technology solutions allow both large and small Irish businesses to accept payments in store, on the road, over the phone, and through a website or app. The company processes 125 million transactions annually for 100+ client companies and operates Ireland’s largest retail payments network with 11,500+ points of sale throughout the country.

The change in ownership will have no impact on the day-to-day business operations of Payzone in Ireland. The senior management team, including Jim Deignan, CEO and Nigel Bell, CFO, will remain in their roles. 

Jim Deignan, Chief Executive, Payzone Ireland, said: “This development is a positive step for Payzone and a vote of confidence in the future of the business. We see significant opportunity to grow our footprint in the fintech sector and this can only be enhanced further with the backing and support of our new shareholders, who bring deep industry expertise to make things happen. The team at Carlyle Cardinal Ireland, which originally invested in Payzone in 2015, has worked very successfully with us to help develop the business and to support our continued growth. We thank them for their great support and investment over that period.”

Peter Garvey, Managing Director, The Carlyle Group, said: “Working with the fantastic management team at Payzone, CCI’s investment in innovation and new product development has helped to accelerate the growth of the business and to transform it into one of Ireland’s most successful multi-channel payment solutions platforms. Net revenue and EBITDA have grown by 40% and 70% respectively, since we invested. Payzone still has numerous opportunities for further growth, which can now be realised with the support of the new investors. This is the fund’s third exit and once again demonstrates the benefits of active, growth-focused private equity investment for ambitious Irish businesses.”

Daragh Lane, Cardinal Capital Group said: “At CCI we believe in helping management teams grow the companies we invest in. When CCI acquired a majority shareholding in Payzone four years ago it processed 61 million transactions a year, delivering a gross transaction value of €1 billion to its customers. Today it processes 125 million transactions a year delivering in excess of €2 billion of value to its customers and is a well-established Irish fintech organisation that drives significant innovations across many traditionally cash-based markets.”

CCI representatives Peter Garvey and Robert Easton of The Carlyle Group and Daragh Lane of Cardinal Capital Group will step down from the Payzone Board on completion of the transaction, which is subject to approval from the European and Irish competition authorities.

* * * * *

Press Contacts:

Cardinal Capital Group
Tom McEnaney, McEnaney Media
Tel: +353 87 2222 666 tom@tommcenaney.com

The Carlyle Group
Laurie Mannix, MKC Communications
Tel. +353 1 703 8620 Mob: 086 814 3710 laurie@mkc.ie

Payzone
Frans van Cauwelaert, WHPR
Tel: +353 87 947 6743 frans.vancauwelaert@ogilvy.com

About Payzone

In Ireland, Payzone is the largest consumer payments network in the country with over 7,500 retail agents which process a variety of electronic transaction services, including mobile phone top ups, debit/credit card transactions; M50 motorway toll payments; Leap travel cards, local property tax payments, parking fees, schools and clubs payment platform, pre-paid utility and parcel collection services.

The company employs over 90 people based in its Sandyford head office in Dublin.

Payzone’s focus is on delivering leading edge payment services that drive greater efficiency for clients and increased revenues for its retail partners.

As industry leader, Payzone’s technology credentials, capabilities and expertise are a particular strength of the business.    

Visit www.payzone.ie

About Carlyle Cardinal Ireland

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Imandra completes $5 million seed round led by AlbionVC, IQ Capital and Liveoak Venture Partners

IQ Capital

Imandra Inc. – creator of the Imandra cloud-native automated reasoning engine – has completed a $5 million Seed investment led by AlbionVC, IQ Capital and LiveOak Venture Partners. The capital will be used towards further growth in financial services and fast-growing applications of their AI technology to autonomous vehicles, robotics and machine learning. Imandra democratises deep advances in symbolic AI for making algorithms safe, explainable and fair. Imandra’s “Reasoning as a Service ®” platform makes these techniques widely accessible to those without specialised background in these fields.

 

Since its founding in 2014, Imandra has pioneered advances in AI for algorithm safety and compliance and their application to new industries. In 2015 it won the UBS Future of Finance Challenge, coming in 1st place out of more than 600 companies from 52 countries by using its AI technology to find a fundamental flaw in the design of the UBS dark pool previously undetected by the bank and the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Imandra’s current clients include top global investment banks who rely on Imandra for design, testing and ongoing audits of their complex trading systems.

 

Since the public release of Imandra’s cloud services last year, the company has expanded into robotics, autonomous vehicles and reinforcement learning. Grant Passmore, co-founder and co-CEO, said “As our reliance on complex software grows, deep advances in AI are required to ensure the algorithms we depend on are safe, explainable and fair. We’re proud of our team and the advances we’ve made in turning groundbreaking research into a scalable product with wide-reaching positive impact. This investment is a strong recognition of our progress and we’re delighted for the support of our venture partners in our next phase of growth.”

 

Denis Ignatovich, co-founder and co-CEO, noted “The need for automated mathematical techniques for algorithm analysis has never been more pressing. Industry leaders including Facebook, Amazon and Google are recognising this with significant investments into automated symbolic reasoning for their business use cases. We could not be in a better position at a better time to provide a scalable and industry-agnostic platform. We’re excited to partner with Albion, IQ Capital and LiveOak on this journey and look forward to leveraging their expertise as we scale our company in this next stage.”

 

This latest round of seed funding will support Imandra’s expansion in both the US and the UK, with significant hiring of AI, engineering and product talent in Austin, London and Edinburgh.

Ed Stacey, Partner at IQ Capital, said: “The founders of Imandra – Grant and Denis – have taken their cutting edge research into characterising algorithmic behaviour and applied it in making a scalable product for the finance industry. We also believe this technology has great potential for a broad class of algorithmic and AI challenges. The founders have a proven track record both in academia – at leading institutions including the University of Cambridge and University of Edinburgh – as well as in business. Many of the companies IQ Capital invests in are IP-rich and spin out of university networks – Imandra is a great example of the type of businesses we want to invest in.”

Robert Whitby-Smith, Partner at Albion VC, said: “Increasing automation safely is critical to most sectors including automotive, aerospace, defence, healthcare, financial services and social media. The number and complexity of algorithms used in applications regarded as safety critical is increasing rapidly with the expansion of automation and machine learning and it is increasingly challenging to test software robustly at scale, and ensure the exhaustive creation of edge cases, using traditional techniques. Imandra’s proprietary software which provides automated testing for functional languages and model-based generation of tests will become a key element of the future mix of software testing. The completeness of the learning experience provided by Imandra will provide significant benefits beyond software testing including the evolution of the training of artificial neural networks. We are delighted to support Denis and Grant achieve their exciting vision.”

Krishna Srinivasan, Founding Partner at LiveOak Venture Partners, said: “Our investment in Imandra embodies the core of our investment thesis to back Texas based top notch entrepreneurs that are disrupting large industry categories.  We recognized quickly that Denis, Grant and team are amongst the best in the world at this emerging area of algorithm and application security testing and that their approach has the ability for multi-industry transformational impact. We are also super excited to welcome Denis and Grant back to their Texas roots, leverage the tremendous local computer science talent and build something significant from where it all began.”

 

Denis Ignatovich and Grant Passmore, the founders of Imandra, have backgrounds in academic mathematics and financial trading. They founded the company in London in 2014, a decade after having met as undergraduate roommates at the University of Texas. Denis started his career at Deutsche Bank in New York, before moving to London to lead a trading desk that relied heavily on complex algorithms. Grant earned his PhD in AI for algorithm safety at the University of Edinburgh and is a Life Member of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge. In 2019, the company opened its new US headquarters in Austin, TX.

 

About Imandra

Imandra is an automated reasoning company with offices in Austin, London and Edinburgh. Imandra was founded by former UT Austin roommates, Denis Ignatovich and Dr. Grant Passmore, who first saw the need and opportunity to apply deep advances in AI to the design and regulation of complex algorithms in finance. The company has since released Imandra, an industry-agnostic cloud-native automated reasoning engine which brings its “AI for algorithms” technology to mainstream software development at scale.

 

About IQ Capital

IQ Capital is a Cambridge-based venture capital firm that invests in UK ‘deep-tech’ across sectors including machine learning, AI, engineering and materials, and data-focused propositions based on disruptive algorithms. All of the firm’s portfolio companies are capable of dominating their respective markets on a global scale. The team typically invest at seed and series A stage, with significant capital reserved to scale companies through their growth stages. Initial investments range from £300k to £5m, with capacity for follow on investment up to £10m.

 

The IQ Capital team has achieved over 20 exits to date, to companies including Oracle, Google, Apple, Huawei and Facebook and several IPOs. IQ Capital has led 28 investments over the last three years. In 2018, IQ Capital has invested in Apperio, Audio Analytics, Paragraf, and Myrtle – joining other portfolio including Speechmatics, Privitar, Thought Machine, Audio Analytic, Oxford Space Systems, Fluidic Analytics, Divido, Senseye and Spectral Edge. The team are currently investing from their third £125 million fund (IQCF III).

 

IQ Capital won Seed Fund of the Year at the GP Bullhound Investor Allstars 2018.

About AlbionVC

AlbionVC is the technology investment arm of Albion Capital Group LLP. The technology team invests from seed through to Series B in high growth companies, predominantly in the UK, with a particular focus on B2B software and technology enabled services. Albion has 20+ years’ experience investing in technology, has c.£450m FUM in technology companies and over 40 tech investments within its portfolios. Visit: www.albion.vc

 

About LiveOak Venture Partners

LiveOak Venture Partners is a venture capital fund based in Austin, Texas, founded by Ben Scott, Krishna Srinivasan and Venu Shamapant. With 20 years of successful venture investing in Texas, the founders of LiveOak have helped create nearly $2 billion of enterprise value. While almost all of LiveOak’s investments begin in the early stages, LiveOak is a full life cycle investor focused on technology and technology-enabled service companies based in Texas. LiveOak Venture Partners is a lead investor in exciting high-growth Texas-based companies such as CS Disco, Digital Pharmacist, NSS Labs, OJO Labs and Opcity. Visit: www.liveoakvp.com

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