Advised HgCapital on the $5.3bn leveraged buyout of Visma by HgCapital and its investment partners GIC, Montagu and ICG from KKR and Cinven

Arma Partners is pleased to announce that it has acted as financial advisor to HgCapital on the buyout of Visma by HgCapital and its investment partners GIC, Montagu and ICG, in a transaction valued at $5.3bn – Europe’s largest ever software buyout and one of the Top 5 globally.

Visma is a leading provider of mission critical accounting, ERP and payroll software to SMBs and Enterprises in the Nordic and Benelux regions and is one of the leading SaaS providers to SMBs in Europe. The company has approximately 6,000 employees and serves over 500,000 clients.

Since 2006, the year of HgCapital’s initial investment in Visma, the company has consistently delivered strong financial performance, growing revenue and EBITDA at CAGRs of 17% and 23% respectively between 2006 and 2016, and has completed more than 120 bolt-on acquisitions.
HgCapital will be the lead investor in the transaction, alongside GIC, Montagu and ICG, who together with HgCapital will invest a total of $1.8bn of equity. Following this transaction, KKR will realise its entire stake in the business, with Cinven separately retaining a shareholding in Visma.

This transaction highlights Arma Partners’ deep expertise in Enterprise Software and our ability to build long term relationships to unlock value for Private Equity clients over time, having previously advised HgCapital on the sale of e-conomic to Visma in 2015 and on the $3.5bn recapitalisation of Visma in 2014.