Tag Archives: Software

Montagu agrees to sell Maincare

Montagu

Montagu, a leading European private equity firm, is pleased to announce that it has agreed to sell Maincare, a provider of software for French public hospitals and health authorities, to Docaposte, the digital arm of La Poste, the French postal service.

Maincare provides an end-to-end hospital information system offering in France, where it is a leader in electronic patient records as well as hospital administration, interoperability, and telemedicine solutions. Through its integrated software suite, it assists public hospitals, payers, and insurers to implement successful digital strategies for the benefit of patients.

Since Montagu acquired Maincare in 2018, it has worked with the business to respond to the rapidly changing needs of policymakers and hospitals, in particular in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Significant investments in R&D led to the development of new-generation electronic patient records as well as the modernisation of Maincare’s technology ensuring that products are interoperable, SaaS-ready, and at the forefront of innovation in terms of cyber-security.

Under Montagu’s ownership, Maincare’s historically acquired business lines were combined from an organisational and technology standpoint, introducing a shared vision and strategy to the business and driving efficiencies. Led by a strong and unified management team, the changes helped to establish a customer-centric culture which put the needs of medical personnel and patients at the centre of the organisation.

Montagu Partner Guillaume Jabalot said, “Maincare is a great example of Montagu’s strategy of partnering with leading companies offering critical products and services. We are proud of the success Maincare has achieved and we are certain that the company will continue to thrive under the ownership of Docaposte. We especially would like to thank the management team and all Maincare’s employees for their hard work and dedication and we wish them all the best on their future journey.”

Maincare is a great example of Montagu’s strategy of partnering with leading companies offering critical products and services.

Guillaume Jabalot, Partner, Montagu

François-Xavier Floren, CEO of Maincare, commented: “The partnership with Docaposte will allow us to address one of the major challenges of our market – the importance of offering customers long-term support with a trusted partner present in software, hosting and services. Over the last two years, with the support of Montagu, we successfully carried out a transformation plan aimed at improving one of the persistent challenges of the French hospital system by “Giving time back to the Caregivers”. The management team and all Maincare’s employees are confident that the partnership with Docaposte will bring further significant value to our clients and to the market.”

Over the last two years, with the support of Montagu, we successfully carried out a transformation plan aimed at improving one of the persistent challenges of the French hospital system by “Giving time back to the Caregivers”.

François-Xavier Floren, CEO, Maincare

The transaction remains subject to the approval of the French competition authority.

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IK Partners and Keensight Capital to agree on the sale of Quanos

IK Partners

Leading pan-European private equity house IK Partners (“IK”) is pleased to announce that the IK Small Cap II Fund (“IK SC II”) has signed an agreement to sell Quanos Solutions GmbH (“Quanos” or “the Company”), a leading developer of software and technology solutions for smart information, to Keensight Capital (“Keensight”), one of the leading private equity managers dedicated to pan-European Growth Buyout[1] investments.

Headquartered in Nuremberg, Germany, Quanos is the global leader for industrial aftersales and digital technical documentation software. The Company offers a comprehensive product portfolio that enables customers to realise substantial cost and time savings, increase operational efficiency, drive profits of aftersales and service activities and enable customers to digitise aftersales services and offerings.

The Company has more than 1,000 customers worldwide who place their trust in Quanos’ software solutions and are served by 270 employees. Quanos’ software offering is focused on original equipment manufacturers and operators, thereby catering to a diversified customer base ranging from global champions to small to medium-sized enterprises.

The Company has recently launched its next-generation cloud platform (InfoTwin), bringing together the power of content and service solutions in one place. The integrated, modular software solutions enable customers to take a 360° view on their products to optimise service processes and efficiency, offer new service models and ultimately to increase customer satisfaction.

IK invested in Quanos in November 2018. Through M&A, three leading software companies were combined to create a market-leading platform for software and technology solutions for smart information. The Quanos brand was launched in 2020 with support from IK’s Operations team.

Keensight Capital will support Quanos’ team, led by Nikolaus Scholz, in its next phase of growth. The Company is well-positioned to further digitise the aftersales market, with massive potential to expand its solutions and services offering, market penetration and international reach, both organically and through acquisitions.

Financial details of the transaction are not being disclosed.

Nikolaus Scholz, CEO at Quanos, said: “With IK’s support, we have been able to achieve a lot in a short period of time. From the brand and vision building to operational initiatives to the design of a product roadmap, we have a solid foundation on which we can grow further. We thank Nils and the team at IK for their invaluable support over the last few years and look forward to partnering with Keensight as we embark on the next phase of our journey.”

Nils Pohlmann, Partner and Advisor to the IK SC II Fund, said: “It has been fantastic to work with Nikolaus and his team to create Quanos and develop the platform into a market-leading software and solutions provider. The Company’s value proposition and vision are fully aligned with key trends. Quanos is in a prime position to shape the ongoing digitalisation wave in industrial aftersales and services. We wish Nikolaus and the team every success for the future.”

Stanislas de Tinguy, Partner at Keensight, said: “We have been very impressed with Quanos’ journey to date and the way in which it has undergone significant transformation to become a software powerhouse. Under Nikolaus’ leadership, the Company has gone from strength to strength, and we look forward to building on this and exploring new growth strategies.”

Completion of the transaction is subject to relevant legal and regulatory approvals.

 

PR Contacts

IK Partners
Vidya Verlkumar
Phone: +44 (0) 7787 558 193
vidya.verlkumar@ikpartners.com

Keensight Capital
Tim Lee
Phone: +44 (0) 7785 345 250
tlee@keensightcapital.com

Citigate Dewe Rogerson
Yoann Besse
Phone: +33 6 63 03 84 91
yoann.besse@citigatedewerogerson.com

 

[1]Growth Buyout: investment in profitable, private companies experiencing strong growth, in minority or majority positions, with or without leverage, using a flexible approach tailored to the needs of individual entrepreneurs, in order to finance organic growth projects, acquisition strategies or provide historic shareholders with liquidity.

About Quanos

Quanos – that is the association of software experts who develop unique software products and solutions for aftersales, service and technical documentation. More than 1000 customers worldwide trust in the innovative, successful and sustainable technology of Quanos. Our 270 employees have more than 20 years of market experience and contribute to the uniqueness of Quanos: We work closely together, complement each other and benefit from each other’s know-how. True to our motto “Passion for smart information”, we live our mission every day: we help people understand machines better. For more information, visit www.quanos.com

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About IK Partners

IK Partners (“IK”) is a European private equity firm focused on investments in the Benelux, DACH, France, Nordics and the UK. Since 1989, IK has raised more than €14 billion of capital and invested in over 170 European companies. IK supports companies with strong underlying potential, partnering with management teams and investors to create robust, well-positioned businesses with excellent long-term prospects. For more information, visit www.ikpartners.com

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About Keensight

Keensight Capital (“Keensight”), one of the leading European Growth Buyout firms, is committed to supporting entrepreneurs as they implement their growth strategies. For over 20 years, Keensight Capital’s team of seasoned professionals has leveraged their knowledge of investment and growth industries to invest for the long term in profitable companies with high growth potential and revenues in the range of €10 million to €400 million. Drawing on its expertise in the Technology and Healthcare sectors, Keensight identifies the best investment opportunities in Europe and works closely with management teams to develop and achieve their strategic vision. Keensight Capital’s success has also earned it a Gold Award from the Private Equity Exchange & Awards each year for the last six consecutive years, and in particular, the Best European Growth Private Equity Fund. www.keensightcapital.com

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Hg agrees to sale of Transporeon for €1.88 billion

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HG Capital

highly successful partnership between Hg and the Transporeon team has led to continued strong revenue and EBITDA growth since 2019, furthering Transporeon’s mission to bring transportation in sync with the world.

Ulm, Germany and London, United Kingdom. 12 December 2022.  Hg, a leading software and services investor, today announces the sale of Transporeon, a leading cloud-based transportation management software platform, to Trimble in a transaction valuing the business at an enterprise value of €1.88 billion.

Transporeon provides a leading cloud-based logistics and transport management platform, solving 360-degree freight problems by enabling automation, real-time insights and collaboration on €48bn of annual freight.  This is all handled on a modern SaaS platform which enables more efficient tendering, dispatching, scheduling, real time tracking and better communication between the around 1,400 enterprises looking to move freight and close to 145 000 carriers – all whilst helping to reduce 30% waste in global transportation and to lower CO2 emissions.

A 20+ year focus on software businesses across Europe and North America led to Hg following the business and engaging with the team for almost a decade prior to investing in 2019. Since then, the business has seen strong growth and continued margin expansion across various cycles.

This robust performance has been enabled by continuous product investment and strategic initiatives, whilst also adding new offerings to Transporeon’s suite both through additional partnerships and five strategic tuck-in acquisitions.​

“The past three years has significantly accelerated Transporeon forward in our mission to bring transportation in sync with the world. Innovation in our products and an expansion of the business has meant we have built a remarkable platform in a rapidly growing sector, with solutions that are in high demand globally. This would not have been possible without the software expertise delivered by Hg. The management team thank everyone at Hg and Transporeon who have worked hard together to put us in this very advantageous position”.

Stephan Sieber, Chief Executive Officer at Transporeon

“We tracked Transporeon for many years, impressed with its globally unique logistics network, solving real supply chain issues in a heavily under-digitized sector. It has been a hugely rewarding, working initially with the founders Marc and Martin, and then with Stephan and the team to build on this. We’re particularly proud to have enabled several new solutions which have proved immensely valuable to customers and the wider global community, like AI-based analytics and prediction tools to facilitate carbon footprint reduction, whilst also expanding our addressable sector via strategic acquisitions. We wish the team the very best wishes as part of Trimble”

Stefan Margolis, Partner at Hg

“Transporeon is at the forefront of freight industry digitalisation and its cloud-based solutions continue to reduce complexity and increase efficiency for a large fragmented global logistics sector. We’re delighted for the team. We’re also proud to continue to deliver on our purpose, to return funds back to clients, with $7 billion returned during 2022.”

Justin von Simson, Managing Partner at Hg

The sale marks the fourth full Hg realisation to a strategic buyer in the last 12 months, having previously sold Medifox to ResMed, Allocate Software to RL Datix and itm8 which merged with AddPro, all contributing to over $7 billion collectively returned to clients in the last 12 months.

The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2023, subject to customary closing conditions including regulatory approvals.

For further information, please contact:

For Hg
Tom Eckersley, Hg
+44 (0)20 8396 0930
tom.eckersley@hgcapital.com

Azadeh Varzi, Brunswick Group
+44 (0)207 404 5959
hg@brunswickgroup.com

About Transporeon

At Transporeon, our mission is to bring transportation in sync with the world. We power the largest global freight network of +1,300 industrial shippers, +100 large retailers and +145,000 carriers and logistics service providers. They execute 220,000 transactions per day on our platform and process around €48bn in freight spend per year.

Our leading Transportation Management Platform connects all actors along the supply chain. It facilitates collaboration between the different parties, helps to automate manual processes and provides valuable real-time insights. The modular Application Hubs solve specific logistics challenges and range from freight sourcing over transport execution and dock and yard management to freight audit and payment. Data hubs provide insights into logistics operations, market developments and carbon emissions, next to ensuring transparency in the supply chain through visibility. Our platform works across all geographies and all modes of transportation, empowering logistics teams to move, manage and monitor freight.

Transporeon is headquartered in Ulm, Germany, and maintains 18 offices around the globe with +1,400 employees across 27 countries. For more information visit www.transporeon.com.

About Hg

Hg is a platform for software and services champions, focused on backing businesses that change how we all do business. Deep technology expertise, complemented by vertical application specialisation and dedicated operational support, provides a compelling proposition to management teams looking to scale their businesses.

Hg has funds under management of over $55 billion, with an investment team of over 160 professionals, including a portfolio team of almost 50 operators, providing practical support to help our businesses to realise their growth ambitions. Based in London, Munich, New York, Paris and San Francisco, Hg has a portfolio of over 46 software and technology businesses, worth over $100 billion aggregate enterprise value, with over 90,000 employees globally, growing at over 20% per year.

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BGF leads major investment in Makers to champion diversity and talent in tech

BGF

Makers, the London based provider of tech talent, has raised £7 million in a funding round led by BGF alongside existing investors Forward Partners and Educapital.

With this investment Makers will offer a wider variety of tech bootcamp and apprenticeship courses over the next three years. These will open up 5,000 opportunities in tech for people who would not otherwise have had access and provide Makers’ clients with diverse talent across their tech teams.

Founded in 2012, Makers identifies high potential career switchers without a background in tech, trains them as software engineers and helps place them with leading companies. Since its founding, the company has trained more than 3,000 people to become software engineers, successfully placing candidates with global brands including Google and Deloitte Digital.

As part of its mission, Makers is committed to championing diversity in tech. In addition to free apprenticeship programmes for students, 30% of places on its Bootcamp courses are taken as full scholarships, 40% of students are women (double the UK tech industry average) and 40% are from underrepresented ethnic backgrounds.

Led by BGF’s London-based investor Rahul Satsangi, this investment will help Makers expand its course portfolio, increasing the supply of highly trained and diverse candidates to address the significant labour gap in the UK technology industry.

Claudia Harris OBE, CEO of Makers (pictured), commented: “Ten years ago, Makers launched the first European Coding Bootcamp and five years later we continued to innovate, becoming early providers of software engineering apprenticeships. Now, with this investment, we will expand our offer across more technical disciplines, increasing the opportunity for people to switch careers into tech and enabling employers to fulfil all of their tech talent needs.

“We are driven by a vision of a tech industry that represents society and where people from all backgrounds can find work that they love. Tech shapes every aspect of our lives but is disproportionately run by people from a narrow segment of society. That needs to change. That’s why we recruit students from all backgrounds and from the day we were founded 10 years ago we have never focused on qualifications, just potential.

“We are incredibly grateful to our existing investors Forward Partners and Educapital for their continued support – and we are delighted to be working with BGF now as we take another step towards fulfilling our vision. From our early meetings it was clear that BGF’s investment team share our values and we are pleased to have their support during our next chapter.”

Rahul Satsangi, Investor at BGF, remarked: “Makers represents a unique and exciting opportunity to invest in a fast-growing mission-led business making a real difference promoting diversity in the tech sector. We are looking forward to working with Claudia and her dedicated senior leadership team to help drive the business forward in its next exciting stage of growth.”

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Openbravo joins DL Software

Adara

We are delighted to share that Adara portfolio company, Openbravo, is joining DL Software, a leading France-based group of vertical software providers, as part of its ambitious path to internationalize its business footprint.

Founded in 2001 in Pamplona, Spain, Openbravo helps brands and retailers looking to accelerate their unified commerce strategy and increase the agility of their operations. The fully-modular platform integrates online and offline channels, provides intelligent order management, real-time views of customers and inventory, and a complete store solution to deliver more personalized experiences.

Openbravo’s all-in-one cloud-based solution is used by international companies such as Decathlon, Flunch, Norauto, Sharaf DG, BUT, Toys ‘R’ Us Iberia, and Zôdio – reaching over 50 countries and more than 10,000 back office users and 40,000 customer touchpoints, such as point of sale and self-service terminals, kiosks, and others.

The acquisition is part of DL Software’s pan-European growth strategy to position itself as an international specialist in multi-sector vertical software.

“We are extremely excited to become part of a larger company ready to help us accelerate on our growth strategy. DL Software has an excellent reputation, and this acquisition represents an important recognition of our solutions, the team, and our achievements to date,” said Marco de Vries, CEO of Openbravo.

“This will help us take our business to the next level and that will benefit our existing and future employees, customers, and partners. I would also like to thank, in the name of all our employees, our previous shareholders Amadeus Capital, Adara Ventures and SODENA, for their fantastic support and guidance over the past years.”

We wish the entire Openbravo team the best as they start this new chapter!

Learn more here: https://www.prnewswire.com/in/news-releases/openbravo-announces-its-acquisition-by-leading-french-group-dl-software-822078251.html 

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Regnology deepens last mile reporting expertise with b.fine acquisition Regnology, a leading software provider with an exclusive focus on regulatory reporting solutions, announces today that it has acquired b.fine, a Belgian RegTech firm which assists financial institutions on the enhancement of their reporting supply chain.

Nordic Capital

Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Belgium, b.fine has grown to a team of nearly 50 that serves over 30 institutional clients across banks, insurance companies and investment firms. b.fine  significantly reduces the regulatory burden for financial institutions by offering them an all-encompassing platform for managing their regulatory reporting processes.

It is the first platform that goes beyond regulatory reporting and fully digitises and automates the journey of a reporting team, allowing financial institutions to regain control and oversight of their different regulatory reporting streams.

b.fine’s cloud-enabled technology complements Regnology’s existing regulatory and supervisory reporting offering by enhancing its last-mile reporting capabilities and accelerating the firm’s ability to serve an extended pan-European market.

Rob Mackay, CEO of Regnology:
“b.fine has a fantastic track record of growth, and in delivering quality solutions to clients. Right from the start we were impressed by what the company has achieved in such a short space of time. We were attracted by the strong synergies between our offerings and are excited to pursue our combined ambition to address the evolution of regulatory reporting through the provision of an innovative product and service offering.”

Klaas Van Imschoot, CEO of b.fine:
“We are looking forward to becoming part of the incredibly successful team at Regnology, with a shared vision to help clients adapt to the demands of an increasingly complex regulatory system.”

Bert De Vriendt, CFO of b.fine
“By joining forces with Regnology, we believe we can allow for better integration between SupTech and RegTech, and utilise its strong connections to deliver greater automatisation and standardisation practices to new clients across Europe and beyond.”

About b.fine
b.fine, established in 2017, is a Belgian-based RegTech scale-up with an ambition to industrialize the regulatory reporting processes for financial institutions. It comprises a team of nearly 50  RegTech experts, leading financial institutions to the next era of regulatory reporting Today, more than 30 financial institutions in the Benelux rely on b.fine’s unique mix of services and solutions to transform their time-consuming reporting processes into an effective reporting supply chain. b.fine is part of the prestigious RegTech100, and its platform was recognized in 2022 as “Best Regulatory Reporting Solution” by RegTech Insight.

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Arsenal Capital Partners Increases Investment in Global Biosimulation Leader Certara with $449M Stock Purchase

Arsenal Capital Partners

rsenal will acquire approximately 30M shares at $15 per share from funds controlled by EQT Private Equity and agrees to two-year lock-up on sale of shares

November 7, 2022

Princeton, N.J.- Certara, Inc. (Nasdaq: CERT) today announced that Arsenal Capital Partners (“Arsenal”), a private equity firm specializing in investing in and building transformational healthcare companies, has committed to make a new $449M investment in Certara. Arsenal currently owns approximately 4% of common shares outstanding and will acquire approximately 30M additional shares from funds controlled by EQT Private Equity (“EQT”), at a price of $15 per share. Upon closing of the transaction, which is subject to HSR regulatory approval, Arsenal will own approximately 22% of diluted shares outstanding.

Arsenal is deeply familiar with Certara’s value proposition for all stakeholders. The firm previously held a majority stake in the company before selling a controlling interest to EQT in 2017. Arsenal continued to maintain a minority equity interest both before and after Certara’s initial public offering in 2020.

In a separate agreement with the company, Arsenal has agreed to a two-year lock-up prohibiting any sale of the newly purchased shares without company approval, reflecting Arsenal’s commitment to being a long-term shareholder. Arsenal will also have the right, subject to maintaining certain ownership percentages, to nominate up to two board members, including current board member Stephen McLean. Following the closing of the transaction, Arsenal Operating Partner David Spaight is expected to join the board, and current board members Eric Liu and Ethan Waxman of EQT will step down from the board.

“We are pleased to further enhance our long-term-oriented shareholder base via a significant new investment from Arsenal,” said William F. Feehery, Chief Executive Officer of Certara. “Arsenal has been invested in Certara for almost a decade, is confident in the critical role of biosimulation within drug discovery and development, and shares in our strategic vision for the business. I also want to thank EQT for its leadership and strategic partnership since 2017, highlighted by the company’s IPO in 2020.”

Stephen McLean, a Senior Partner of Arsenal, said, “This transaction reflects our long-term advocacy for, and conviction in, the strategic importance of biosimulation in drug development. It also reflects our belief in the long-term prospects of Certara, our admiration for William Feehery’s leadership, and our trust in the entire Certara management team. We look forward to our continued partnership with Certara and to further supporting its efforts to enable more efficacious development of therapies and cures for human disease.”

Eric Liu, Partner, Head of North American Private Equity, and Co-Head of the Global Healthcare Sector Team at EQT, added, “EQT is proud to have been part of Certara’s remarkable journey during the last five years. We would like to thank the management team for their trusted partnership. EQT is confident that Arsenal will continue to be a great shareholder as Certara builds on its strong momentum, and we look forward to the company’s continued success.”

About Certara

Certara accelerates medicines using proprietary biosimulation software, technology and services to transform traditional drug discovery and development. Its clients include more than 2,000 biopharmaceutical companies, academic institutions, and regulatory agencies across 62 countries.

Investor Relations Contact:
David Deuchler
Gilmartin Group
ir@certara.com

Media Contact:
Daniel Yunger
Kekst CNC
daniel.yunger@kekstcnc.com

Jackie Schofield
Prosek Partners
Pro-Arsenal@prosek.com

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Eudonet announces the acquisition of GiveXpert

Montagu

Eudonet is the French leader in vertical CRM software for charities, professional associations, higher education and the public sector. The company is also present in Switzerland, Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands and the UK. Today, Eudonet is pleased to announce the acquisition of Carisinfo and its solution provider GiveXpert.

GiveXpert is a leading provider of online donation solutions in France having supported over 200 clients to raise more than 228 million euros since 2015. The SaaS platform allows non-profit organisations to attract donors and to design and manage their fundraising campaigns.

Through this combination, Eudonet will be able to increase investments in the GiveXpert solution and to offer it to all Eudonet’s clients who wish to run online fundraising campaigns. Both R&D teams have already started working together to offer their respective clients the best combination of CRM and online fundraising.

GiveXpert clients will benefit from full data integration with their CRM if they use Eudonet. Similarly, Eudonet clients will be able to seamlessly manage their donation campaigns using GiveXpert directly from their CRM. Furthermore, Eudonet’s international presence provides a unique opportunity to expand the GiveXpert solution outside of France.

Antoine Henry, CEO of Eudonet, said: “We are very pleased to welcome the GiveXpert team, their product offering, and their customers to the Eudonet group. This acquisition strengthens our offering in a strategic area for our clients allowing them to further develop their web presence and enhance their fundraising. It demonstrates our commitment to invest in the charity market to better serve our clients.”

 

We are very pleased to welcome the GiveXpert team, their product offering, and their customers to the Eudonet group.

Antoine Henry, CEO , Eudonet,

Alexandre Ayad, CEO of Carisinfo, adds: “After 13 years of autonomy, it seemed to us that the time had come to join a group in order to develop the GiveXpert solution with new resources and thus enable it to be distributed even more widely, particularly abroad. Eudonet is a leader in CRM solutions and, what’s more, a French company that places social impact at the heart of its concerns, which was essential for us.”

Eudonet is a leader in CRM solutions and, what’s more, a French company that places social impact at the heart of its concerns, which was essential for us.

Alexandre Ayad, CEO, Carisinfo

 

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Cinven to acquire TaxAct

Cinven

Cinven will bring TaxAct and Drake Software, a Cinven portfolio company, together over time under a new holding company, creating a leading, full-service tax solutions provider for professionals and consumers

LONDON, November 1, 2022 – International private equity firm, Cinven, today announces that it has reached an agreement to acquire TaxAct for approximately $720 million. Following closing of the transaction, Cinven will bring the business together with existing portfolio company Drake Software (“Drake” or the “Company”) under a single holding company. This will create a full-service tax ecosystem provider with the scope to use the resources and shared principles of the combined businesses to innovate and support their complementary professional tax preparer and individual tax filer customer bases.

TaxAct is one of the leading providers of digital, do-it-yourself (“DIY”) tax filing assistance software and services, operating in a fast growing subset of the U.S. tax preparation services market. Since it was founded in 1998, TaxAct has grown rapidly, providing DIY tax filing services to more than 85 million individual filers to date, and was the first online software provider to offer free tax filing services.

With a 45-year track record of best-in-class products and services, Drake Software is a leading provider of comprehensive professional tax preparation software, servicing more than 70,000 tax offices throughout the U.S. In 2021, Cinven made a significant investment in Drake to support the next stage of the Company’s growth.

 

Chris Good, Partner at Cinven, commented:

“Since investing in Drake in 2021, Cinven has set out to support the Company’s growth plans, including expanding its presence in the professional tax preparation market, renewing its technology platform and enhancing its product offerings for the benefit of Drake’s tax professional customers. The addition of TaxAct’s consumer tax preparation platform will further strengthen Drake’s capabilities to anticipate and serve the needs of all types of customers as today’s tax landscape becomes increasingly sophisticated. This transaction exemplifies Cinven’s track record of working with companies to support their growth and capability expansion strategies, creating better products for customers and increasing opportunities for employees.”

 

Daniel Garin, Senior Principal at Cinven, added:

“Cinven has followed TaxAct for many years. This acquisition allows Cinven to back two leading management teams, building a stronger combined company that can win in an attractive market with substantial potential for future growth. We are excited to bring together two industry-leading, complementary businesses with shared values and a collective vision for delighting customers through product innovation and exceptional customer service. This investment builds on Cinven’s strong track record in the TMT sector in North America and is continued evidence of Cinven successfully deploying its sector-country matrix to originate attractive investment opportunities.”

Upon the close of the transaction, Dom Morea will remain President and Chief Executive Officer of Drake Software and Curtis Campbell will continue to lead the TaxAct business. The businesses will continue to operate under their own brands within the holding company.

The transaction is expected to close before the end of 2022, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

Advisers to Cinven on the transaction included: Evercore, J.P. Morgan, and Ropes & Gray LLP.

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Emerson to Sell Majority Stake in Climate Technologies to Blackstone in Transaction Valuing the Busin

Blackstone

Blackstone to Help Power Next Phase of Growth for Climate Technologies

ST. LOUIS and NEW YORK – October 31, 2022 – Emerson (NYSE: EMR) today announced a definitive agreement under which it will sell a majority stake in its Climate Technologies1 business to private equity funds managed by Blackstone (“Blackstone”) in a transaction valuing Climate Technologies at $14.0 billion. Emerson will receive upfront, pre-tax cash proceeds of approximately $9.5 billion while retaining a non-controlling ownership interest in a new standalone joint venture.

The standalone Climate Technologies business includes the market-leading Copeland compressor business and the entire portfolio of products and services across all HVAC and refrigeration end-markets, representing approximately $5.0 billion of fiscal 2022 sales.

Management Comments

“Today’s announcement is a definitive step in the portfolio journey we embarked on when I became CEO in early 2021,” said Lal Karsanbhai, President and Chief Executive Officer of Emerson. “Over the past 18 months, the Emerson team has accelerated our portfolio transformation, divesting non-core businesses including InSinkErator and Therm-O-Disc, while investing in organic growth opportunities and important transactions including AspenTech. Our journey has been with clear purpose – to drive growth and significant value creation for our shareholders by creating a leading global automation company. Our differentiated capabilities in intelligent devices and software, and the focus, cohesiveness and operating agility of a pure-play company, will allow Emerson to bring our comprehensive automation products and solutions to a diverse set of end markets.”

“This transaction enables Emerson to partially monetize our Climate Technologies business at an attractive valuation and provides significant upfront cash proceeds to invest in growth, while at the same time enabling Emerson to participate in Climate Technologies’ upside potential upon exit of our non-controlling position,” continued Mr. Karsanbhai. “We are excited to partner with Blackstone given its successful history of value creation in collaboration with corporate partners. We look forward to working closely with Blackstone to ensure a smooth transition for Climate Technologies’ employees and customers.”

Joe Baratta, Global Head of Blackstone Private Equity, commented, “Blackstone has a long and successful track record of large-scale corporate partnerships, a key pillar of our investment strategy. This is a marquee transaction for our private equity business and a testament to our ability to deliver solutions to our partners even in difficult economic and market environments. We are proud to be partnered with Emerson to help drive the next stage of growth for this great business. Copeland is the market leader in supplying critical components for residential, commercial and refrigeration climate control systems. The business is poised for accelerated growth as it leads the way in helping consumers and businesses shift to more energy-efficient heating and cooling products as part of their carbon reduction efforts. We are thrilled to back the business’ dedicated team as they continue to innovate and deliver energy-efficient solutions to their customers.”

Transaction Details

Climate Technologies had fiscal 2022 net sales of $5.0 billion, pre-tax earnings of $1.0 billion and EBITDA2, including standalone costs, of $1.1 billion. The transaction values Climate Technologies at $14.0 billion, representing a multiple of 12.7x fiscal 2022 EBITDA2, including standalone costs. Emerson will receive upfront, pre-tax cash proceeds of approximately $9.5 billion and a note of $2.25 billion at close and retain 45% common equity ownership of the standalone Climate Technologies business, which will be structured as a joint venture between Emerson and Blackstone, until its potential sale or IPO. The cash consideration will be funded by $5.5 billion of fully committed debt financing ($6.2 billion inclusive of an unfunded ABL facility) and $4.4 billion of equity contribution from Blackstone. A wholly owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and GIC will invest alongside Blackstone as part of the transaction.

Timing and Other Details

The transaction has been unanimously approved by Emerson’s Board of Directors and is expected to close in the first half of the calendar year 2023, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.

Operating results for Climate Technologies, and previously announced divestitures, InSinkErator, which is expected to close later today, and Therm-O-Disc, will be reported in discontinued operations in the first fiscal quarter of 2023. Included in Emerson’s continuing operations will be Automation Solutions, Safety & Productivity, and AspenTech.

As part of the transaction, Emerson will be right sizing its corporate and platform cost structure and will sell ownership of its St. Louis, Missouri campus to the joint venture. Emerson will enter a three-year lease on the headquarters with an option to extend a further two years. During that time, Emerson will undertake a comprehensive assessment of potential headquarters locations.

Advisors

Centerview Partners LLC and Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC are serving as financial advisors to Emerson, and Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP is serving as legal counsel. Barclays served as lead financial advisor to Blackstone. Guggenheim Securities, LLC and Evercore also provided financial advisory services to Blackstone. The ABL revolver and TLA portion of the debt financing related to the transaction is led by RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Wells Fargo and SMBC. Additional financing is provided in the form of a private Term Loan by a consortium of lenders. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP is acting as legal counsel to Blackstone.

About Emerson

Emerson (NYSE: EMR) is a global technology and software company providing innovative solutions for the world’s most essential industries. Emerson is an automation leader that helps process, hybrid and discrete manufacturers optimize operations, protect personnel, reduce emissions and achieve their sustainability goals through its unmatched automation portfolio, including its majority stake in AspenTech. For more information, visit Emerson.com.

About Blackstone

Blackstone is the world’s largest alternative asset manager. We seek to create positive economic impact and long-term value for our investors, the companies we invest in, and the communities in which we work. We do this by using extraordinary people and flexible capital to help companies solve problems. Our $951 billion in assets under management include investment vehicles focused on private equity, real estate, public debt and equity, infrastructure, life sciences, growth equity, opportunistic, non-investment grade credit, real assets and secondary funds, all on a global basis. Further information is available at www.blackstone.com. Follow @blackstone on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

Forward-Looking and Cautionary Statements

Statements in this press release that are not strictly historical may be “forward-looking” statements, which involve risks and uncertainties, and Emerson undertakes no obligation to update any such statements to reflect later developments. These risks and uncertainties include the Company’s ability to successfully complete on the terms and conditions contemplated, and the financial impact of, the proposed Climate Technologies transaction, the proposed sale of its InSinkErator food waste disposal business, the scope, duration and ultimate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, as well as economic and currency conditions, market demand, including related to the pandemic and oil and gas price declines and volatility, pricing, protection of intellectual property, cybersecurity, tariffs, competitive and technological factors, inflation, among others, as set forth in the Company’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent reports filed with the SEC.

1Climate Technologies refers to the reported segment excluding Therm-O-Disc, divestiture closed May 2022.

2EBITDA, including standalone costs, of $1.1 billion was adjusted by the following: $0.15 billion of depreciation and amortization expense and $0.05 billion of standalone costs to arrive at pretax earnings of $1.0 billion.

Contacts

For Emerson:

Investors:

Colleen Mettler

(314) 553-2197

Media:

Joseph Sala / Tanner Kaufman
Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher
(212) 355-4449

Charlotte Boyd

(952) 994-8607

For Blackstone:

Matt Anderson

Matthew.Anderson@blackstone.com

(212) 390-2472

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