Arma Partners announces new record year
London, 31 March 2023 – Arma Partners (“Arma”), the independent financial advisory firm focused on companies, investors and entrepreneurs active in the global Digital Economy, today announces a third consecutive record financial year. Despite a slowdown in global M&A activity and downturn in technology sector public valuations, Arma delivered growth in annual revenue to 31 March 2023, up from the preceding 12-month period ending 31 March 2022, which was also a record fiscal year.
Arma was able to achieve record commercial performance against a challenging market backdrop because of its granular domain knowledge across the Digital Economy, established reputation for expert independent advice and high-quality tenured senior bankers. The firm has also grown its team in this period, from 80 to over 100.
Paul-Noël Guély, Founder and Managing Partner of Arma Partners, said: “The last 12 months have seen both public and private investors within the Digital Economy shift their focus towards scaled top-quartile companies that are more resilient and profitable. We were able to achieve this latest record financial year because our clients know that we have the team, expertise and track record to deliver exceptional outcomes, despite continued market volatility. Based on our record deal pipeline, the ongoing evolution of the global economy driven by digital innovation and transformation and the prospect of favourable shifts in macroeconomic drivers like inflation and interest rates, we anticipate another very strong year ahead.”
In the last year, Arma advised on 27 transactions, comprising 19 M&A deals and 8 growth capital financings. This activity spanned investment in software companies on private markets, where the highest-quality businesses were able to maintain pre-correction valuations; continued buyer interest in public and hybrid cloud services from global system integrators, PE-backed cloud consolidators and PE capital; and acquisitions and investment in fintech market leaders with strong KPIs as well as data and information providers.
Notable M&A deals included Hg’s investment in The Access Group at an $11.6bn valuation; the sale of SaaS platform Bynder to Thomas H. Lee Partners; the offer for German listed retail software provider GK Software by Fujitsu; the take private of Norwegian listed, environmental, health and safety SaaS company, EcoOnline by Apax; Clearlake and TA Associates’ acquisition of intelligent automation software provider Kofax and Kofax’s subsequent acquisition of AIM-listed Tungsten Corporation; the sale of network services provider Virtual1 to TalkTalk Group; the sale of online presence solutions provider Dogado to group.ONE; the recapitalisation of SME cloud hosting leader Contabo by KKR; Providence Equity Partners’ acquisition of global automotive information company A2Mac1 jointly with Five Arrows Principal Investments; and Summa Equity’s acquisition of B2B auctions group TBAuctions jointly with Castik Capital.
Arma’s success in raising capital for high-growth clients included the $230m investment by Sofina in food delivery leader Rohlik, the $130m growth financing of vacation rental platform Holidu led by 83 North and two ground-breaking Quantum Computing financings.
The team at Arma is grateful to our clients and broader ecosystem for their continued trust in our advice. We look forward to working closely together over the coming months to support existing and new clients achieve exceptional outcomes.