Arma Partners is pleased to announce that it has acted as financial advisor to Hg on its further majority investment in Visma, a leading provider of business-critical software to private and public enterprises in the Nordic, Benelux and Baltic regions. The investment will value Visma at an Enterprise Value of NOK 110 billion (US$12.2 billion), making this the largest ever software buyout globally.

Hg Saturn 2 will acquire a further stake in Visma from a group of current investors including Montagu, who will fully exit the business. Warburg Pincus and TPG will invest in the business for the first time, acquiring minority stakes, and existing investor CPPIB will also acquire an additional stake alongside current co-investors, including General Atlantic who invested earlier in the year. Following completion of the transaction, Hg will continue to own a majority stake in Visma (c.54%), with co-investors GIC, ICG, CPPIB, Warburg Pincus, TPG, General Atlantic and management.

Founded in 1996, Visma is the largest provider of cloud-delivered SaaS to over one million businesses in areas such as accounting, resource planning, payroll, HR and commerce applications. The company’s early investment in SaaS has delivered exceptional and uninterrupted revenue and EBITDA growth of 19% and 23% CAGR respectively over the last 15 years. Today, with over 11,000 employees, including 4,000 software developers, Visma will continue to invest in world-class technology, including new areas of innovation such as AI and machine learning, with a view to create a fully online ecosystem for SMBs across Europe.

This transaction demonstrates Arma Partners’ outstanding track record of successfully executing landmark transactions and building long-term client relationships, having previously advised on Visma’s $5.3 billion recapitalisation in 2017 and $3.5 billion recapitalisation in 2014.