London, July 13th 2017 – Ardian, the independent private investment company, today announced the arrangement of a Senior Debt financing facility to finance Castik Capital’s carve-out acquisition of Wolters Kluwer Transport Services (“WKTS”), a leading European-focused provider of logistics management cloud-based software platforms. The financing marks the beginning of Ardian Private Debt’s Senior Debt direct lending capabilities.
WKTS was founded in 1985 under the name Teleroute, primarily offering Freight Exchange (“FX”) solutions. The Company was acquired by the Wolters Kluwer Group in 1989, which led an expansion of its product portfolio to include Transportation Management Software (“TMS”) solutions, whilst also driving strong business growth both organically and through selective M&A. Under the ownership of the Wolters Kluwer Group, WKTS has significantly expanded its geographical presence throughout Europe, and has recently expanded internationally into the US, China, and Latin America. The company currently serves more than 100,000 users across 80 countries.
WKTS primarily focuses on end-customers transporting large volumes of low value goods, where both shippers and carriers benefit significantly from managing transport volumes through web-based platforms. Within the broader market, WKTS is focused on cloud-based platforms, covering ‘matching’ through its FX platform, and ‘logistics management networks’ through its TMS platform.
ABOUT WKTS
WKTS, founded in 1985 and headquartered in Brussels, provides its customers with “on demand” Transportation Management Software and Services, equally catering for all transport and logistics professionals. With over 100,000 users across 80 countries, and through the breadth of their service offerings, WKTS is one of the few providers able to address the needs of the entire logistics supply chain via carriers, freight forwarders, logistics providers, and shippers.
ABOUT ARDIAN
Ardian, founded in 1996 and led by Dominique Senequier, is an independent private investment company with assets of US$62 billion managed or advised in Europe, North America and Asia. The company, which is majority-owned by its employees, keeps entrepreneurship at its heart and delivers investment performance to its global investors while fuelling growth in economies across the world. Ardian’s investment process embodies three values: excellence, loyalty and entrepreneurship.
Ardian maintains a truly global network, with more than 460 employees working through twelve offices in Beijing, Frankfurt, Jersey, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Milan, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Singapore and Zurich. The company offers its 580 investors a diversified choice of funds covering the full range of asset classes, including Ardian Funds of Funds (primary, early secondary and secondary), Ardian Private Debt, Ardian North America Direct Buyout, Direct Funds (Ardian Mid Cap Buyout, Ardian Expansion, Ardian Growth, Ardian Co-Investment), Ardian Infrastructure, Ardian Real Estate and customized mandate solutions with Ardian Mandates.
ABOUT CASTIK
Castik Capital, founded in 2014, is based in Luxembourg and focuses on identifying and developing investment opportunities across Europe. The advisor to Castik Capital is Castik Capital Partners GmbH, based in Munich. The professionals of Castik Capital and Castik Capital Partners have worked together for many years and collectively the partners have more than 100 years of relevant experience in private equity, industry, consulting, and banking.
Funds managed by Castik Capital aim to deliver superior returns through a flexible, focused, and long-term approach to investing and value creation.
Castik Capital is currently investing out of its first fund which has a volume of €1 billion.
