Category Archives: News

Pricefx raises $65 million for global expansion and product innovation in Series C financing round led by the Apax Digital Fund

Apax Digital

14 July 2020

Increasing adoption of pricing software has fueled Pricefx’s growth as companies look for ways to increase revenue and profit during the global economic slowdown and beyond

CHICAGO, MUNICH and PRAGUE – July 14, 2020: Pricefx, the global leader in cloud-native pricing software, today announced it has received $65 million in Series C funding, bringing the company’s total raised to date to $130 million. The round was led by funds advised by Apax Digital, the growth equity team of Apax Partners, with participation from existing investor Digital+ Partners. Pricefx will use the new funding to expand and solidify its global market leadership position as the only true SaaS platform in the pricing industry, accelerate product innovation, extend its partner ecosystem, and evaluate strategic acquisitions.

SaaS solutions have faced increased demand since pandemic measures forced companies to rapidly and radically address digital transformation initiatives. Pricing software, in particular, has seen a tremendous surge in interest owing to the strong return on investment, even in downturns. As a result, Pricefx has signed more than a dozen new customer deals since March of this year.

“Pricing is being recognized as a critical competency for global enterprises and Pricefx is leading the way for a SaaS-based approach,” said Marcin Cichon, CEO and co-founder of Pricefx. “This investment from Apax confirms Pricefx’s resilience, ability to grow its customer base, and innovate – even during challenging times. This investment will further power our global commercial strategy and aggressive product innovation, by attracting critical talent, expanding our growing ecosystem of partners, and enabling further potential strategic acquisitions – all in pursuit of our mission to bring pricing solutions to as many companies as we can, as simply and effectively as possible.”

Pricefx provides a suite of cloud-based pricing software tools – from Price Optimization, Management (PO&M) to Configure-Price-Quote (CPQ) – for B2B and B2C enterprises of all sizes. Additionally, the company launched the first “6 weeks to live” activation accelerator with Lightning, delivering industry-leading time-to-value. The company has supported its clients through the COVID-19 crisis with initiatives such as providing access to its Sales Insights solution free of charge. In May, Pricefx acquired French market leader Brennus Analytics, which brought industry-leading AI capabilities in pricing optimization and Pricefx’s Optimized Dynamic Pricing solution was recently named an SAP endorsed app.

“Pricing is one of the most important value creation levers for businesses, and we share Pricefx’s passion for making pricing software easier, faster and more accessible,” said Mark Beith, Partner of Apax Digital. “Companies are abandoning inefficient manual processes, disparate spreadsheets, and sub-optimal prices, and embracing Pricefx’s next-gen software, which dynamically manages, optimizes and updates prices across all channels.”

“We are thrilled to join Marcin and the whole Pricefx family on their mission to democratize pricing software and deliver best-in-class time to value and exceptional return on investment to their customers,” said Daniel O’Keefe, Managing Partner of Apax Digital.

Concurrent with this investment, Beith and O’Keefe will join Pricefx’s supervisory board.

“We are excited and proud to continue supporting the Pricefx team on their global growth journey. Pricefx demonstrates a relentless drive towards product innovation and customer success and we believe that they are well on-track to build the undisputed global category leader in pricing software,” said Axel Krieger, Founding Partner at Digital+ Partners.

Pricefx was recently named a finalist in Ventana’s 13th Annual Digital Innovation Awards. These awards identify the top technologies that have the most striking impact in their respective markets, recognizing pioneering vendors that contribute advancements in technology, drive change and increase value for organizations worldwide. The company has several disruptive innovations coming this year, including a self-service version of its analytics software, industry-specific Accelerator packages, enhanced CPQ functionality, and an AI-enhanced upgraded version of its PriceOptimizer product.

About Apax Digital

The Apax Digital Fund specializes in growth equity and buyout investments in high-growth enterprise software, consumer internet, and technology-enabled services companies worldwide. The Apax Digital team leverages Apax Partners’ deep tech investing expertise, global platform, and specialized operating experts, to enable technology companies and their management teams to accelerate the achievement of their full potential. For further information, please visit: www.apax.com/digital.

Over its more than 40-year history, Apax Partners has raised and advised funds with aggregate commitments of c.$50 billion. These funds provide long-term equity financing to build and strengthen world-class companies. For more information see: www.apax.com.

About Digital+ Partners

Digital+ Partners is a leading technology growth equity investor focused on European and US technology companies with €350 million assets under management. Digital+ aims to support ambitious entrepreneurs build global technology leaders, providing them with strategic advice and long-term financial support to help them define and execute their growth plans. The fund focuses exclusively on B2B technology investments and leverages a deep corporate network to help portfolio companies access new markets and build new partnerships. For more information please visit: www.dplus.partners.

About Pricefx

Established in 2011 in Germany, Pricefx is the global leader in SaaS pricing software, offering a comprehensive suite of solutions that are fast to implement, flexible to configure and customize, and friendly to learn and use. Pricefx delivers a complete price optimization and management platform based on native cloud architecture, providing industry leading time to value and total cost of ownership advantages to customers. Its innovative solution works for both B2B and B2C enterprises of any size, in any industry, in any part of the world. Pricefx’s business model is entirely based on the satisfaction and loyalty of its customers. Pricefx delivers Passion for Pricing. For more information, please visit www.pricefx.com.

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Media Contacts

For Pricefx

Cathy Summers, Summers PR | +1 (415) 483-0480 |cathy@summers-pr.com

For Apax Digital / Apax Partners

Global Media: Matthew Goodman / James Madsen, Greenbrook | +44 20 7952 2000 | apax@greenbrookpr.com

USA Media: Todd Fogarty, Kekst CNC | +1 212‐521 4854 | todd.fogarty@kekstcnc.com

Notes to Editors:

London-headquartered Apax Partners (www.apax.com) and Paris-headquartered Apax Partners (www.apax.fr) had a shared history but are separate, independent private equity firms.

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CVC Credit Partners refinances Ardena’s credit facilities

CVC Credit Partners refinances Ardena’s credit facilities

13 Jul 2020

CVC Credit Partners teams up with GHO Capital to support Ardena’s international growth strategy

CVC Credit Partners is pleased to announce that it has provided financing to Ardena, a specialist pharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO). The funding is in the form of a first lien loan to refinance existing debt as well as an acquisition facility to support the business’ ongoing expansion of its international footprint. MDW Capital served as the debt advisor for the transaction.

Founded in 2013, Ardena is a multi-service CDMO, assisting small-to-mid sized biopharma with services spanning the full development life cycle. The business offers a comprehensive ‘Make, Analyse, File’ model from drug substance and drug product manufacturing and bioanalytical services to regulatory dossier development. With a strong reputation for quality and a flexible service delivery model, Ardena’s differentiated high science approach caters to a diversified base of over 300 customers throughout Europe, the US, Japan and Korea. Headquartered in Ghent, Belgium, it also operates sites in the Netherlands, Sweden and Latvia.

Harry Christiaens, CEO of Ardena, commented: “We are pleased to have completed the refinancing of our credit facility and to have finalised access to a committed acquisition facility. We are now well positioned to continue our strong organic growth profile and drive the next stage of international expansion to better serve our global customer base.”

The partners at GHO Capital added: “Operating within a highly fragmented market, Ardena is the market leading platform from which to build a fully integrated early stage CDMO, serving Biopharma clients globally. CVC Credit Partners are engaged with our vision for the future of the business and their experience of the healthcare sector as well as supporting numerous international growth strategies will be highly beneficial to realising Ardena’s full potential.”

Neale Broadhead, Head of European Private Debt in CVC Credit Partners’ European Private Debt business, said: “Ardena is a quality business which is well positioned to benefit from positive underlying growth trends in its markets. It has a respected and highly qualified team, and an experienced partner in GHO Capital. We are pleased to be able to support Ardena and GHO and look forward to working closely with them both in the years ahead.”

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Nordic Capital selects Capgemini to help drive AI and Machine Learning for its portfolio companies

Nordic Capital

July 13 2020

Capgemini and Nordic Capital join forces to provide a platform to accelerate the implementation of artificial intelligence and machine learning as value drivers within Nordic Capital’s portfolio companies.

Nordic Capital sees AI and Machine Learning as important technologies to accelerate automation and data insights across all industries. By working with Capgemini, Nordic Capital is implementing global access to a program which provides its portfolio companies with experts and knowledge to support and accelerate their AI journeys and maturity.

Capgemini is at the forefront of innovation, addressing the entire breadth of companies’ opportunities in an evolving world of cloud, digital and platforms. It has a broad offering of services to industrialize AI and machine learning, helping organizations scale for maximum impact and accelerate AI-infused transformation to realize sustainable and trusted business performance. By leveraging the power of AI and machine learning, Capgemini has helped its clients to grow and improve.

“The partnership with Capgemini is an investment in Nordic Capital’s portfolio company Digitalization Toolbox and demonstrates Nordic Capital’s commitment to drive digital and AI-infused transformation, embracing the technological developments within its portfolio companies. This is another great example of Nordic Capital’s focus on Ownership Excellence, as we, together with Capgemini, can provide a unique combination of the best AI knowledge and business implementation services to Nordic Capital’s portfolio companies”, says Olof Faxander, Operating Partner, Nordic Capital Advisors.

“Nordic Capital is a landmark new client for Capgemini. We look forward to an active relationship and close collaboration where our deep domain expertise, wide range of accelerators in our Perform AI portfolio and strong team of data science professionals will contribute to the value creation of Nordic Capital’s portfolio companies,” says Kevin Jiang, Head of Insight Driven Enterprise practice at Capgemini Invent Sweden-Finland.

To kickstart this relationship, Capgemini has supported one of Nordic Capital’s portfolio companies in the Technology & Payments sector to utilize advanced machine learning algorithms that is anticipated to generate significant additional revenue. Discussions on how AI could support in value creation are being carried out with portfolio companies across all sectors.

 

Media contacts:

Nordic Capital

Katarina Janerud, Communications Manager
Nordic Capital Advisors
Tel: +46 8 440 50 50
e-mail: katarina.janerud@nordiccapital.com

 

Capgemini

Gunilla Resare
Tel.:+ 47 450 02 542
e-mail: gunilla.resare@capgemini.com

 

About Nordic Capital

Nordic Capital is a leading private equity investor with a resolute commitment to creating stronger, sustainable businesses through operational improvement and transformative growth. Nordic Capital focuses on selected regions and sectors where it has deep experience and a long history. Core sectors are Healthcare, Technology & Payments, Financial Services and Industrials & Business Services. Key regions are Northern Europe and globally for Healthcare. Since inception in 1989, Nordic Capital has invested more than EUR 14.5 billion in over 110 investments. The Nordic Capital vehicles are based in Jersey. They are advised by several non-discretionary sub-advisory entities based in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Germany, the UK and the US, any or all of which are referred to as Nordic Capital Advisors. For further information about Nordic Capital, please visit www.nordiccapital.com

 

About Capgemini

Capgemini is a global leader in consulting, digital transformation, technology and engineering services. The Group is at the forefront of innovation to address the entire breadth of clients’ opportunities in the evolving world of cloud, digital and platforms. Building on its strong 50-year+ heritage and deep industry-specific expertise, Capgemini enables organisations to realise their business ambitions through an array of services from strategy to operations. Capgemini is driven by the conviction that the business value of technology comes from and through people. Today, it is a multicultural company of 270,000 team members in almost 50 countries. With Altran, the Group reported 2019 combined revenues of EUR 17 billion. Visit us at www.capgemini.com.

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Ardian infrastructure signs 20-year financing for Åndberg wind farm

Ardian

Financing secured with KfW IPEX-Bank based on quality and long-term resilience of Åndberg project
• Highlights Ardian’s commitment to supporting the transition towards sustainable energy despite prevailing market conditions

Stockholm, 9th July 2020 – Ardian, a world-leading private investment house, has signed a 20-year financing for its 286 MW “Åndberg” wind farm in Sweden. The financing is provided by KfW IPEX-Bank, which is the part of KfW Group responsible for project and export finance.

The long-term financing was secured on the back of a 10-year green power purchase agreement (PPA) with Skellefteå Kraft, one of Sweden’s largest energy producers, agreed in October 2019. The financing allows Ardian and eNordic to further optimize and secure more revenue streams for the wind farm.

Ardian Infrastructure acquired the Åndberg wind farm from OX2 in February 2019 as part of its Nordic sustainable energy investment platform, eNordic. The windfarm is relying on the latest technology, having upgraded its Nordex turbines to the 5MW class earlier this year. Following its completion in 2021, Åndberg will each year provide clean electricity in excess of 800 GWh, making it one of the largest wind farms in Sweden.

The Åndberg wind farm is one of four current wind power investments managed by Ardian’s new sustainable energy investment platform, eNordic. Earlier this year, Ardian made its first investment in Finland, being the acquisition of the Lakiakangas 1 wind farm from German-based wind power company, CPC Finland Oy.

Thomas Linnard, Managing Director, eNordic, says: “This agreement is the latest step in our strategy to build a leading independent sustainable energy group in the Nordic region. The long-term financing was secured at very attractive terms despite current market conditions and high level of complexity involved, highlighting the strength of the project and our approach.”

Simo Santavirta, Head of asset management, Ardian Infrastructure, says: “This project is a great example of our asset management capabilities and ability to improve our investments’ performance including financing, hedging, build-ups and technical optimization.”

Amir Sharifi, Managing Director, Ardian Infrastructure, adds: “This operation highlights our continued commitment to sustainability and relentless activity as we continue to look for investment opportunities to support the sustainable energy transition in the Nordic region.”

Markus Scheer, Member of the Management Board of KfW IPEX-Bank, says: ”KfW IPEX-Bank is firmly committed to finance innovative energy and environmental projects, and we’re pleased to support Ardian and eNordic’s Åndberg wind farm as they continue to support the sustainable energy transition in the Nordics. It has been a real pleasure to work with their highly competent teams and we look forward to a long-term partnership.”

 

ABOUT ARDIAN

Ardian is a world-leading private investment house with assets of US$100bn managed or advised in Europe, the Americas and Asia. The company is majority-owned by its employees. It keeps entrepreneurship at its heart and focuses on delivering excellent investment performance to its global investor base.

Through its commitment to shared outcomes for all stakeholders, Ardian’s activities fuel individual, corporate and economic growth around the world.

Holding close its core values of excellence, loyalty and entrepreneurship, Ardian maintains a truly global network, with more than 680 employees working from fifteen offices across Europe (Frankfurt, Jersey, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Milan, Paris and Zurich), the Americas (New York, San Francisco and Santiago) and Asia (Beijing, Singapore, Tokyo and Seoul). It manages funds on behalf of around 1,000 clients through five pillars of investment expertise: Fund of Funds, Direct Funds, Infrastructure, Real Estate and Private Debt.

ABOUT eNORDIC

eNordic is the Nordic’s first sustainable energy platform, formed by a partnership between Ardian, a world-leading private investment house, and leading domestic industry executives.
Through a local, responsible and agile investment approach, eNordic enables the transformation of the energy sector through long-term partnerships with those that develop or operate sustainable energy projects in the Nordics.
It invests in opportunities in wind, biomass, hydro and district heating, in addition to traditional energy assets that have the potential to be transformed or managed in a particularly sustainable way.
eNordic is based in Sweden and Finland, with local teams operating throughout the Nordics region.

visit the website

ABOUT KfW IPEX-Bank

Within KfW Group, KfW IPEX-Bank is responsible for project and export finance. It supports German and European companies operating in key industrial sectors in global markets by structuring medium and long-term financing for their exports, funding infrastructure investments, securing a raw materials supply and by financing environmental and climate protection projects worldwide. As a specialist bank, KfW IPEX-Bank has extensive industry, structuring and country expertise, it takes on leading roles in financing consortia and actively involves other banks, institutional investors and insurance firms. KfW IPEX-Bank operates as a legally independent group subsidiary and is represented in the most important economic and financial centres across the globe.

visit the website

LIST OF ADVISORS

  • Financial

    • Newsec

  • Legal

    • Vinge/MSA

Press contact

Ardian/eNordic – Headland Consultancy

VIKTOR TSVETANOV

+44 20 3805 4827

KfW IPEX-Bank

PHILIPP KIELBASSA

+49 69 7431 6431

Press contact

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Amsterdam based THEYDO receives €400.000 seed round

Arches Capital

TheyDo.io the platform for digital design thinking announced today that it has raised €400.000 in seed funding, led by Arches Capital.

TheyDo accelerates innovation with an online platform to support proven methods like customer journey mapping and Design Thinking. By managing innovation online, insights become available to everyone in the organization and allow teams to collaborate online and remotely. TheyDo shortens go-to-market time significantly and ties customer needs to business goals. With their mission to make every business process customer-centric, TheyDo is on the road to becoming the go-to platform for innovation.

Most organizations already know customer-centricity leads to better results and cuts cost in the long run, but at the same time they struggle to implement working processes outside the creative workshop. With TheyDo it becomes possible to share knowledge from qualitative research, creative workshops, and customer journeys, by managing everything in one place.

Jochem van der Veer, Co-Founder of TheyDo

 

The capital raise is used to rollout the customer-centric transformation program, the company developed for larger organizations. The program is designed to train multidisciplinary teams, help them to produce real results, and then scale up the process, transforming the whole organization towards working customer-centric.

This summer, the team will also release live collaboration features, designed to create an environment where multiple teams can work together in the same customer journey, live and cloud-based. Something today is only possible in (digital) whiteboard sessions. It will enable designers, marketers, managers, and executives to collaborate on improving the end-to-end customer experience while delivering on business KPI’s.

Ruben Meiland, founder of Ticketscript and ex VP of Product at Eventbrite will join the board of directors on behalf of Arches Capital. Amongst investors, Pieter Omvlee, Founder of Sketch is actively involved in the development of the platform.

Earlier this month TheyDo launched its Enterprise transformation program. For smaller organizations, a digital version will be rolled out over the coming months so every company can start working customer-centric.

About TheyDo
TheyDo is a CX platform to bring customer-centricity into the heart of every business process. What started with the insight to scale Design Thinking outside the creative workshop, is now a platform to integrate customer-centricity as an end-to-end business process. TheyDo offers a complete solution by combining her software with a transformation program, led by its certfified Design Thinking coaches.

For more information see www.theydo.io

About Arches Capital
Arches Capital, a fast-growing group of business angels, invests in startup and scale-up companies with a large growth potential. Through its investments, Arches Capital bridges the gap between formal investors (VCs) and informal investors (business angels), by joining the best of both worlds:

“ We source, select and invest like a VC;
We engage, care and inspire as the angel we are. ”

By bundling smart capital (combining funding with real business knowledge and experience) with true engagement (actively working together to achieve growth), we are able to ignite early stage companies achieve above-average growth. Arches Capital distinguishes itself from other angel networks by its active support to angels building a broad and professional investment portfolio, co-investment from Arches Capital in each deal and the unique distribution of proceeds amongst its members.

For more information, visit www.arches.capital

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Tosca to acquire Contraload NV

Apax

29 June 2020

Acquisition expands Tosca’s capabilities to service entire supply chain – first mile through last mile delivery
Addition of Contraload will enhance Tosca’s geographic and product diversification

Atlanta, Georgia, June 29, 2020 – Tosca, an innovator in reusable packaging and supply chain solutions, announced today that it has agreed to acquire Contraload NV, a leader in plastic pallet pooling in the United Kingdom and European Union.

The acquisition of Contraload will expand Tosca’s geographic reach and increase its product portfolio. The combined company will offer customers a stronger value proposition through increased network density and an expanded product offering.

In conjunction with the transaction, funds advised by Apax Partners (the “Apax Funds”), which acquired Tosca in 2017, will commit additional capital to Tosca to fund the acquisition of Contraload. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Tosca has a 60-year history of innovation that has driven its growth into a leading North American provider of reusable packaging and supply chain solutions across a wide array of markets. Today, the company is the largest RPC pooler in North America, offering an enhanced product portfolio and the most extensive service center network for grocery retailers and suppliers. It employs more than 1,236 people and operates 29 service centers worldwide.

Headquartered in Aartselaar, Belgium, Contraload is a leading provider of upstream reusable plastic pallets and containers for the FMCG industry and other commercial markets in Europe. The company, which runs a unique Pan-European pooling service and employs more than 150 people, also offers outsourced pallet and layerpad conditioning and management services for customer-owned asset pools. Contraload was founded in 2004 and has approximately 3 million units in use, serving close to 3,000 companies.

Eric Frank, CEO of Tosca, stated: “Tosca’s acquisition of Contraload, a leader in plastic pallet pooling in the United Kingdom and European Union, establishes our combined company as an even stronger partner for our customers globally and allows us to continue to propel the reusable revolution.”

Jesse Sels, Contraload’s Founder and Managing Director, said, “Having built Contraload into the leader in pooling plastic pallets, layerpads and IBCs in the B2B environment across Europe, we are excited to join with the Tosca team through this transaction. Our companies have a shared commitment to service excellence, innovation and reducing waste throughout the supply chain.”

Ashish Karandikar, Partner at Apax Partners, said: “Three years ago, we partnered with Tosca’s management team to build a world-class pooling business that brings sustainability, innovation and value to customers’ supply chains. The acquisition of Polymer in 2019 established Tosca’s ‘last mile’ capabilities in Europe. The combination with Contraload represents another important advance as it brings together Tosca’s last mile capabilities with Contraload’s offerings in the ‘first mile’ of a product journey – thereby creating unique visibility and value for customers. The combined organization offers a strong global network, an expanding reusables portfolio, improved research and development, and custom capability for all customers from CPGs to grocery chains.”

About Tosca 

Tosca is a leading provider of reusable packaging and supply chain solutions across a diverse range of markets including eggs, case-ready meat, poultry, produce, seafood, and cheese. Our proven RPC system is a smarter way to move fresh product safely from source to shelf, substantially reducing shrink and labor cost, maintaining product quality, and optimizing overall supply chain efficiency for retailers, growers, and suppliers. Tosca recently acquired Polymer Logistics, expanding our geographic reach, product portfolio and R&D capabilities. For more information visit: www.toscaltd.com.

About Contraload

Contraload has grown to become the expert and market leader in pooling load carriers in a B2B environment, across Europe with service centers to support customers in over 15 countries.  Markets include food ingredients, food packaging, hygiene products, infant nutrition, beverage can and non-hazardous liquids.  Re-use is the key word as Contraload facilitates moving away from single use packaging towards a circular model of returning re-usable packaging.  For more information visit: www.contraload.com.

About Apax Partners 

Apax Partners is a leading global private equity advisory firm. Over its more than 40-year history, Apax Partners has raised and advised funds with aggregate commitments of approximately $50 billion. The Apax Funds invest in companies across four global sectors of Tech & Telco, Services, Healthcare and Consumer. These funds provide long-term equity financing to build and strengthen world-class companies. For more information see: www.apax.com.

Media Contacts

For Tosca
Susan Heil, Tosca I +1 920 569 5335 I sheil@toscaltd.com

For Contraload
Kevin Boone, +32 3 304 92 90, Kevin.Boone@contraload.com

For Apax Partners
USA Media: Todd Fogarty, Kekst CNC | +1 212 521 4854 | todd.fogarty@kekstcnc.com
UK and Global Media: Matthew Goodman / James Madsen, Greenbrook | +44 20 7952 2000 | apax@greenbrookpr.com

Notes to Editors

London-headquartered Apax Partners (www.apax.com), and Paris-headquartered Apax Partners (www.apax.fr) had a shared history but are separate, independent private equity firms.

Categories: News

TIM and Ardian reach agreement over investment in INWIT S.p.A

Ardian

TIM S.p.A. (“TIM”) and Ardian, a leading global private investment company, have today reached an agreement for a consortium of institutional investors led by Ardian (“Consortium”) to invest in a newly formed holding company (the “Holding Company”) in which will be transferred a 30.2% share of the cocontrolling stake in Infrastructure Wireless Italiane SpA (“INWIT”), currently held by TIM.

TIM has also reached an agreement with a vehicle managed and advised by Canson Capital Partners (Guernsey) Limited (“Canson”) whereby Canson will acquire a direct stake in INWIT of up to 3% of its share capital, based on the same INWIT share price used in the sale to the Consortium.

On completion of the transaction, the Consortium will hold a 49% stake in the capital of the Holding Company. The transactions are based on an INWIT share price of €9.47 (ex dividend) with implied proceeds for TIM of €1.6 billion.

On completion of the transactions, TIM will have full and exclusive control of the Holding Company and, through it, will continue to exercise joint control over INWIT together with Vodafone Europe B.V. Consortium will have minority governance rights over the Holding Company and INWIT, with a view to protecting its investment and as per standard procedure in transactions of this nature.

The Holding Company will replace TIM, for the portion of INWIT shares held, in the existing shareholders’ agreement between TIM and Vodafone Europe B.V., under which TIM and Vodafone Europe B.V. jointly control INWIT.

Completion of the transaction is subject to a number of conditions being met by September 30, 2020, including authorisation under the Golden Power regulations and confirmation from Consob, Italy’s stock market regulator, of there being no requirement to make a mandatory offer.

 

About TIM

TIM is one of the top Information & Communication Technology companies in Europe and the market leader in Italy. It offers
its customers fixed and mobile telecommunications, internet, premium digital entertainment content – through TIMvision,
TIMmusic and TIMgames – and advanced cloud-based platforms. All with flexible and customisable offers to meet the
needs of families and businesses, on platforms accessible from a range of devices.
TIM is included in the major international sustainability indexes and is committed to becoming the leading telco in the
Eurozone in terms of sustainability and social responsibility.
The Group includes TIM Brasil, one of the leading players on the Brazilian market; Sparkle, an international carrier and one
of the top ten telecommunication service providers in the world, with a 530,000 km network extending across Europe, Africa
and Asia; Olivetti, which operates in key sectors such as the Internet of Things and offering cutting-edge hardwares and
softwares.

 

About ARDIAN

Ardian is a world-leading private investment house with assets of US$100bn managed or advised in Europe, the Americas
and Asia. The company is majority-owned by its employees. It keeps entrepreneurship at its heart and focuses on delivering
excellent investment performance to its global investor base.
Through its commitment to shared outcomes for all stakeholders, Ardian’s activities fuel individual, corporate and economic
growth around the world.
Holding close its core values of excellence, loyalty and entrepreneurship, Ardian maintains a truly global network, with more
than 670 employees working from fifteen offices across Europe (Frankfurt, Jersey, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Milan, Paris
and Zurich), the Americas (New York, San Francisco and Santiago) and Asia (Beijing, Singapore, Tokyo and Seoul). It
manages funds on behalf of around 1,000 clients through five pillars of investment expertise: Fund of Funds, Direct Funds,
Infrastructure, Real Estate and Private Debt.

ardian.com

 

About Canson Capital Partners

Canson Capital Partners is a leading alternative capital-focused Advisory and Merchant Banking firm. Providing senior advice
and principal-to-principal engagement, the team seeks to connect sources of alternative capital with specific opportunities,
enabling clients to achieve their long-term strategic objectives. Since 2017, Canson Capital Partners has advised on private
equity-related transactions with an aggregate transaction value of over $54 billion. Canson Capital Partners is the trading
name of Canson Ltd, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

cansoncp.com

Press contact

TIM Press Office

https://www.telecomitalia.com/media

+39 06 3688 2610

Press contact

Ardian – IMAGE BUILDING

Cristina Fossati, Luisella Murtas

ardian@imagebuilding.it Tel: +39 02 8901 1300

Press contact

Canson Capital Partners – Greenbrook Communications

Gina Bell / Matthew Goodman

canson@greenbrookpr.com

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Astorg to acquire Normec Group from Summit Partners

Astorg

Astorg is pleased to announce that it has signed a definitive agreement in partnership with management to acquire Normec Group (“Normec” or the “Group”), a leading provider of testing, inspection, certification and compliance services headquartered in the Netherlands, from global growth equity investor Summit Partners.

Normec was founded in 2016 and today employs a team of more than 900 across the Benelux region and Germany. The Group specialises in testing, inspection and certification services in the foodcare and life, safety & environment markets. Since its inception, Normec has accelerated the execution of its strategy to become a Top 3 player in its markets through the acquisition of over 20 leading specialist providers.

Joep Bruins, CEO and founder of Normec, said: “We are delighted that Astorg has chosen to partner with Normec. Astorg has a strong track record of investing in and supporting the growth of founder-led companies. We are very proud of what we have achieved in such a short timespan since our founding, and we are appreciative of the support we have received from Summit Partners. We are excited to work together with Astorg to continue to strengthen and build out the Normec value proposition for our clients.”

François de Mitry, Managing Partner at Astorg, commented: “Over the past years, we have spent significant time reviewing the testing, inspection and certification space through which we have identified Normec. Normec’s leading position in its highly attractive core markets is a strong fit with Astorg’s investment strategy, and we are very excited to support Normec’s international expansion.” Nicolas Marien and Benjamin Cordonnier, Directors at Astorg added: “Normec has an impressive track record of delivering consistent growth through outstanding quality of service. We have already identified promising future M&A opportunities to actively work on with the management team led by Joep.”

Christian Strain, Managing Director at Summit Partners said: “It has been a privilege to work in partnership with the Normec team. Since Summit’s investment in 2017, the Group has executed its organic and acquisition-driven growth strategy and created a leading pan-European testing, inspection and certification services provider.” Johannes Grefe, Principal at Summit Partners, added: “The Normec management team has delivered strong growth over the last several years. We look forward to seeing the Group build upon this strength in the future.” Mr. Strain and Mr. Grefe led Summit Partners’ 2017 investment in Normec and have served on the Group’s board of directors since that time.

The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2020 and is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Normec was advised by Jefferies and the management team of Normec was advised by ING.

Press contacts:

Astorg

Stéphanie Tabouis
Publicis Consultants
Tel: +33 6 03 84 05 03
e-mail: stephanie.tabouis@publicisconsultants.com

Summit Partners

Meg Devine
Tel: +1 617 824 1047
e-mail: mdevine@summitpartners.com

About Normec:

Normec is the holding company of the Normec Group. Normec is active in the field of testing, inspecting, certification and compliance mainly in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Normec assesses and supports the quality and safety of materials, systems and products by conducting independent audits, tests and inspections based on accredited methods. As an independent organisation, the work of Normec includes taking care of the quality and safety of their clients’ materials, systems and products. With intelligent, thorough and independent research and reporting, Normec combines professional expertise with excellent IT-driven services to provide value added services to their clients. In doing so, Normec ensures the sustainable improvement of companies or institutions. Normec operates in the Life Safety & Environment and Food & Agriculture segments. For further information about Normec: www.normecgroup.com.

About Astorg:

Astorg is a leading independent private equity firm with over €8 billion of assets under management. Astorg seeks to partner with entrepreneurial management teams to acquire market leading global companies headquartered in Western Europe and North America, working together to create value through the provision of strategic guidance, experienced governance, and adequate capital. Astorg enjoys a distinct entrepreneurial culture, a long-term shareholder perspective, and a lean decision-making body enhancing its reactivity. Though not specialised, Astorg has gathered valuable industry expertise in software, healthcare, business-to-business professional services, and technology-based industrial companies. Astorg has offices in London, Paris, Luxembourg, Frankfurt and Milan. For further information about Astorg: www.astorg.com.

About Summit Partners:

Founded in 1984, Summit Partners is a global alternative investment firm that is currently managing more than $21 billion in capital dedicated to growth equity, fixed income and public equity opportunities. Summit invests across growth sectors and has invested in more than 500 companies in technology, healthcare and other growth industries. These companies have completed more than 140 public equity offerings, and more than 200 have been acquired through strategic mergers and sales. Summit maintains offices in North America and Europe and invests in companies around the world. For more information, please see www.summitpartners.com or follow on LinkedIn.

In the United States of America, Summit Partners operates as an SEC-registered investment advisor. In the United Kingdom, this document is issued by Summit Partners LLP, a firm authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Summit Partners LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales with registered number OC388179 and its registered office is at 11-12 Hanover Square, London, W1S 1JJ, UK. This document is intended solely to provide information regarding Summit Partners’ potential financing capabilities for prospective portfolio companies.

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bp invests $5 million in geospatial analytics company Satelytics

BP Ventures

  • Firm uses machine learning and spectral imagery to monitor environment.
  • Technology combines data from satellites, drones and planes.
  • Part of bp’s strategy to deploy a suite of complementary methane detecting techniques across new and existing facilities.

bp ventures invests in Satelytics

bp ventures has invested $5 million in Satelytics, a cloud-based geospatial analytics software company that uses advanced spectral imagery and machine learning to monitor environmental changes, including methane emissions.

 

Satelytics collects high resolution spectral imagery from the planet’s surface using satellites, drones, and planes. Its technology combines these images with proprietary algorithms to create unique electromagnetic signatures that can be used to detect environmental changes, including releases or leaks. Its software visualises these data sets on interactive displays that give end-users a clear and actionable picture of operations, and alert them to facility risks, like methane leaks.

 

bp’s $5 million investment will enable Satelytics to develop its technology further and scale its applications throughout the oil and gas sector. Use of the technology has the potential to be part of bp’s aim to install methane measurement at all major oil and gas processing sites by 2023, publish the data and then drive a 50% reduction in methane intensity of its operations.

 

Morag Watson, bp senior vice president of digital science and engineering, said: “Satelytics is modernising the energy sector by making data about physical assets more accessible and digestible, leading to better decision making. We are excited to work closely alongside their unique team of scientists and technologists to help them evolve their technology and to continue to move the needle on industry digitalisation.”

 

Sean Donegan, chief executive of Satelytics, said: “bp’s early use of our detection and quantification software has inspired us to expand our capabilities. bp’s investment marks an inflexion point for Satelytics, which will assist us in expanding our technological capabilities and fuel future innovation.”

 

Through its venturing business, bp is making strategic investments in innovative, game-changing technologies and businesses that can help it reimagine the global energy system.

 

David Hayes, bp ventures managing director for the Americas and chief operating officer, said: “Earlier this year we announced our ambition to become a net zero company by 2050 or sooner, and to help the world get to net zero. As part of our ambition, one of our 10 aims relates to methane measurement at all of our major oil and gas processing sites by 2023 and reducing methane intensity of our operations by 50%. Advanced technologies such as Satelytics, integrating multiple approaches to efficiently detect emissions, have the potential to be a valuable tool that can support this work.”

Notes to editors

About Satelytics:

 

  • Satelytics Inc., is a cloud-based geospatial analytics software suite.
  • Multi or hyper-spectral imagery is gathered from satellites, UAV, planes, and fixed cameras, and processed to provide both alerts and qualitative results for our customers.
  • Data can be gathered on up to a daily basis and results sent to customers in hours.
  • This includes the specific problem, location, magnitude, and even qualitative information, which minimize cost, impact, and operational disruption for clients.

About bp ventures:

 

  • bp ventures was set up more than 10 years ago to identify and invest in private, high growth, game-changing technology companies, accelerating innovation across the entire energy spectrum. Since then, bp has invested almost $700 million in technology companies across more than 31 active investments with more than 250 co-investors.
  • Venturing plays a key role in bp’s strategy to tackle the dual challenge of meeting the world’s need for more energy, while at the same time reducing carbon emissions.
  • bp ventures focuses on connecting and growing new energy business. It makes strategic equity investments across a portfolio of relevant technology businesses including advanced mobility, low carbon and digital.
  • For more information visit: bp.com/ventures.
  • Shaun Healey, bp ventures Principal, will take up a director seat on the board of Satelytics.

Further information

Contacts

bp press office, London: +44 (0)20 7496 4076, bppress@bp.com

Kekst CNC, London: +44 (0)20 3755 1630, bpventures@kekstcnc.com

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CVC Credit Partners backs Calibre Scientific’s next phase of growth

Funding by CVC Credit Partners will support the business’s buy-and-build growth strategy

CVC Credit Partners (“CVC Credit”) is pleased to announce that it has provided a $92 million multicurrency first lien credit facility to Calibre Scientific, the life sciences and diagnostics business owned by StoneCalibre. Funding provided by CVC Credit will be used to refinance the existing debt facility and to support the company’s global acquisition strategy. Baird Global Investment Banking served as the exclusive debt advisor for the transaction.

Founded in 2013, Calibre Scientific is a diversified global developer, manufacturer and distributor of consumable products in the life sciences and diagnostics markets. Since inception, the business has continually expanded through a combination of organic growth and acquisitions, and today has a broad portfolio of more than 3,000 products, which it sells into over 100 countries worldwide. Calibre Scientific’s 6,000+ customers include blue-chip biopharmaceutical companies, leading academic institutions and diagnostics companies.

Dr. Benjamin Travis, CEO of Calibre Scientific, commented: “We are happy to have completed the refinancing of the business and secured financing to continue to execute our acquisition growth strategy. This strong foundation will allow us to progress with our next phase of development.”

Brian Wall, Founder and CEO of StoneCalibre, added: “We are pleased to bring CVC Credit Partners onboard. Their ability to quickly understand the dynamics of the market and Calibre Scientific’s operating model was impressive, while their experience in supporting international growth strategies convinced us that they will have a key role to play going forward.”

Andrew Eversfield, Director of CVC Credit Partners’ U.S. Private Debt business, said: “We’re excited to support a company delivering high societal impact and one whose mission is as critical as ever. Calibre Scientific is an established player in a growing market. It has a broad portfolio of leading brands and a loyal and highly diverse customer base. We look forward to partnering with StoneCalibre and helping to write future chapters of the Calibre Scientific story.”

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