Stockholm / Luxembourg – Alpega, a leading global logistics software company, has completed the acquisition of TenderEasy AB, Stockholm, effective as per December 31^st 2017. The majority in Alpega is owned by funds managed by Castik Capital, the European private equity investment firm.

TenderEasy complements Alpega with its freight tendering software solution that is offered to customers across verticals and geographies. The company was founded in 2004 in Stockholm and launched its freight contract tendering solution in 2012. Since then, many reputable customers have been won who manage a substantial multi-modal freight tendering volume using TenderEasy. The company will be led by CEO and Founder Johan Vagerstam together with CTO and Founder Anders Åbjörn, as well as CCO Fredrik Nergell.

TenderEasy strategically broadens the product portfolio and geographic reach of the Alpega Group as it provides a critical add-on solution to Alpega’s Transportation Management Software (“TMS”) brands inet and Transwide. Customers of the tendering solution will benefit from the Alpega network of over 50,000 on-boarded carriers for sourcing transport providers.

While the TenderEasy solution will continue to be available stand-alone, it will also be technically integrated with the inet and Transwide products. This combines the freight tendering solution of TenderEasy with the TMS of Alpega to provide its customers with a seamless user experience when using several products of the Group.

Alpega was formed in 2017 as a leading global logistics software company that offers end-to-end solutions covering all transport needs, including TMS solutions and freight exchanges. Key products comprise:

• inet – TMS solution for complex, multi-modal global transportation networks including unique dynamic optimization capabilities
• Transwide – TMS solution for shippers, logistics service providers and carriers to manage the end-to-end execution of transports
• TAS-tms – Modular TMS solution that enables carriers and freight forwarders to manage the entire transport process
• Teleroute – Pan-European freight exchange that connects to more than 30,000 carriers to offer and allocate shipments
• Bursa Transport – Leading freight exchange in Romania to offer and allocate shipments for 16,000 users
• 123 cargo – Freight exchange to offer and allocate shipments in the Central and South Eastern European countries

Alpega management and shareholders are looking forward to continuing the growth and development of the Group together with TenderEasy

• EQT Mid Market acquires Candidator, a Swedish managed IT services provider with capabilities for full IT outsourcing in Sweden and Norway

• EQT Mid Market is committed to drive continued growth and further strengthen Candidator’s service offering both organically and through add-on acquisitions

• Potential to further consolidate the fragmented Nordic managed IT services market

The EQT Mid Market Europe fund (“EQT Mid Market”) today announced that it has entered an agreement to acquire Candidator Holding AB (“Candidator” or “the Company”) from the private investment company Sobro and minority owners.

Established in 1997, Candidator is a managed IT services provider with capabilities for full IT outsourcing, providing its clients with mainly contractually recurring services, including cloud, hosting and application management. The Company has approximately 300 employees in Sweden and Norway with annual sales of around EUR 45 million. Candidator has managed to build strong customer relationships within the SME segment by combining customer focus with high quality IT solutions.

EQT Mid Market will support the continued development of Candidator’s growth strategy while strengthening its platform and developing its service offering, both organically and through acquisitions. The Company is expected to benefit from strong underlying secular trends, including increased share of IT outsourcing and growing cloud adoption.

“EQT has monitored the Swedish managed IT services market for a long time and identified Candidator as an attractive platform to drive the consolidation. We are impressed by Candidator’s strong financial performance and industry-leading customer satisfaction, successfully built by the founders and management. EQT’s expertise within the TMT and Services sectors, coupled with a strong network of Industrial Advisors will support Candidator’s further growth and development”, says Johan Dettel, Partner at EQT Partners, Investment Advisor to EQT Mid Market.

“We are excited about welcoming EQT as our new majority owner. Candidator is entering the next stage of growth in the Nordic managed IT services market and EQT will enable us to continue to develop our platform as well as future-proof our customer-centric service offering. Working together with EQT will empower us to build a leading Nordic managed IT services group”, says Johan de Verdier, CEO of Candidator.

HDR Partners served as M&A advisor to EQT Mid Market, White & Case as legal advisor, Bain as commercial consultant and KPMG as finance and tax advisor. All parties have agreed to not disclose the transaction value.

Contact:
Johan Dettel, Partner at EQT Partners, Investment Advisor to EQT Mid Market, +468 506 55 350
EQT Press Office, +468 506 55 334

About EQT
EQT is a leading alternative investments firm with approximately EUR 38 billion in raised capital across 25 funds. EQT funds have portfolio companies in Europe, Asia and the US with total sales of more than EUR 19 billion and approximately 110,000 employees. EQT works with portfolio companies to achieve sustainable growth, operational excellence and market leadership.

More info: www.eqtpartners.com

About Candidator
Candidator AB has offices in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö, Vara, Skövde, Bergen, Oslo and Alingsås, where the company has four modern data centers that deliver stable and efficient IT operations around the clock to the company’s approximately 400 contracted customers. Since the start in 1997, Candidator has shown strong growth and they currently have approximately 300 employees. The company’s strategy is to build long-term relationships with its customers by combining high levels of service with effective IT solutions that provide clear business benefits.

More info: www.candidator.se

Gimv, together with other shareholders, has signed an agreement to sell its shares in Mackevision to Accenture. Headquartered in Germany, Mackevision is a market leader in Computer Generated Imagery (CGI). The acquisition will add state-of-the-art visualization capabilities to Accenture Interactive’s content production and digital services portfolio and strengthen its ability to create engaging customer experiences.

Mackevision (www.mackevision.com) was founded in 1994 and has a team of more than 500 employees with offices in Germany, the US, the UK, South Korea, China and Japan. They design and produce high-end 3D visualizations, animations and visual effects (VFX) for images, films and interactive applications, including sales and marketing, online product configurations, virtual showrooms and point-of-sale experiences. With clients that include global brands, Mackevision has achieved most notable success in the automotive industry – where CGI-based and ‘digital twin’ visualization has experienced some of the earliest adoption. From online vehicle configurators, to virtual dealer showrooms, to AR/VR product experiences, to batch catalog image creation, it has demonstrated what is possible with life-like virtual imagery. Mackevision has earned international acclaim for its work on the HBO Series “Game of Thrones” – for which it was awarded an Emmy.

Since Gimv’s investment in 2014, Mackevision successfully expanded globally with the opening of subsidiaries in China, South Korea and Japan but also reinforced its organization by completing the management team and by further professionalizing the company. Moreover, Mackevision realised an outstanding growth trajectory by almost tripling its revenues and by gaining key client references in all regions.

“Gimv’s effort to truly understand Mackevision, our business and our people, brought real added value during our alliance,” says Armin Pohl, CEO of Mackevision. “We are very thankful for the collaborative partnership over the last three years. We were able to implement our growth strategy and strengthen our market leadership, profitability and capacity for innovation. Our acquisition by Accenture is the next logical step in line with our strategy. Together, we are ready to take our business to the next level.”

Eric de La Vigne, Principal at Gimv, comments: “Mackevision’s management team has done a tremendous job in building the company to what it is today, having achieved a market leadership position globally and being referenced by the major automotive OEMs. We are very confident that the combination with Accenture will help the company to further grow in the automotive industry but also expand into new verticals and strongly benefit from the complementary offerings of Accenture.”

“The cooperation with the management of Mackevision can be seen as a textbook example where different success factors came together. Firstly and most essentially, there was a clear common and very ambitious goal on the development of the company. Secondly, the complementarity of both partners resulted in a fruitful collaboration, supported by a deep mutual trust. Last but not least, our co-operation has always been enriching and fun. Therefore, we are proud having achieved this together and are very happy to have found in Accenture the best next owner for Mackevision’s further development,” adds Sven Oleownik, Head of Gimv Germany.

Over the entire holding period, the investment in Mackevision generated a return well above Gimv’s long-term average return, with a positive impact on the last published equity value at 30 September 2017 of about EUR 0.7 per Gimv-share.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions. No further financial details on the transaction will be announced.