Arma Partners is pleased to announce that it has acted as financial advisor to Aareal Bank on the sale of a significant minority stake in its software subsidiary Aareon. Advent will acquire a 30% stake in Aareon at an enterprise value of €960m. The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals.

Aareon is the leading provider of real estate software solutions in Europe, serving around 3,000 customers and over 10 million units.  The company’s offering includes mission-critical Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software and a broad suite of modular Digital Solutions, leveraging its proprietary cloud platform.

Aareal Bank is a leading international provider of smart financing, software products, digital solutions and payment transaction applications in the property sector and related industries.

Advent International has entered into a long-term partnership with Aareal Bank to significantly accelerate Aareon’s growth and value creation, with the clear ambition to reach “Rule of 40” performance by 2025. Advent, Aareal Bank and Aareon will jointly develop a value creation plan to boost organic growth and further promote operational excellence, as well as facilitate a significant step-up in M&A activity, allowing Aareon to drive consolidation in a fragmented market.  Aareon will benefit from Advent’s extensive network, transaction execution capabilities and complementary sector expertise.

This multi-faceted transaction, which involved advising a publicly listed German bank on the sale of a minority stake in a software subsidiary to a private equity firm in the midst of a global pandemic, underscores Arma Partners’ execution excellence and consistent track record of successfully executing landmark transactions.