Arma Partners is pleased to announce that it has acted as exclusive financial advisor to IRIS Software Group Limited on its recapitalisation by HgCapital at an enterprise valuation of £763 million. HgCapital has been an investor in IRIS Software since acquiring the business for £102 million in 2004 and a majority owner for seven of the past eleven years.

With 35 years’ experience, IRIS Software is a leading provider of business critical software and services to the UK accountancy and SME sectors. Over 18,000 UK accountancy firms use IRIS Software every day to run their practices, with 7,000 consuming at least one cloud solution from the IRIS Cloud Suite to connect to a community of over 500,000 subscribing SMEs and their employees. IRIS Software is the most trusted accountancy software provider in the UK today with 30 of the top 50 practices as customers and 2.9 million tax returns successfully filed with HMRC each year.

With a strong core business, a large addressable market and continued investment in cloud solutions, IRIS Software is well positioned to accelerate its growth both through organic growth investments and further acquisitions.

This transaction highlights Arma Partners’ continued strength in cloud-enabled software businesses and our exceptional track record of working with Private Equity-backed companies.