Visma sold to HgCapital for $5.3bn

HgCapital has today announced a further investment into Visma Group Holdings, a leading provider of business-critical software to SMBs in the Nordic and Benelux region.

HgCapital will invest a further £238 million, in addition to its current holding, valuing the total business at an enterprise value of NOK45 billion (£4.2 billion, US$5.3 billion), making this the largest ever software buyout in Europe and one of the top 5 globally.

HgCapital will be the lead investor in the new transaction structure, representing 41% of the equity, alongside GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, Montagu and ICG, who will hold minority stakes. Following this transaction, KKR will have realised its entire stake in the business, with Cinven separately retaining a shareholding of c. 17% in Visma. GIC, Montagu and ICG are all committing direct capital to the business, which continues to demonstrate the ability of Visma to attract world-class institutional investor support to help drive the future growth of the business.

This group is collectively acquiring 100% of KKR’s stake in Visma and 40% of Cinven’s shareholding as part of their exit process; investing a total of c. £1.4 billion of equity as part of the transaction. Completion is subject to regulatory approval.

This transaction values HgCapital ‘s 2014 investment in Visma at 2.4x original cost / c. 36% gross IRR in NOK, after less than three years of ownership.

In 2002, HgCapital's TMT team identified regulatory-driven, subscription-based software as an attractive sub-sector with scope for considerable growth over the following decade.  HgCapital has made more than twelve investments in the regulatory-driven software space over the last fifteen years and more than 150 bolt-on acquisitions over this same period.  In total HgCapital has made 37 software TMT investments and over 200 bolt-on software acquisitions since 2002, making the firm comfortably the most active European TMT investor over this period.

HgCapital initially invested £101 million in Visma in 2006 (through the firm’s HgCapital 5 fund), completing a public-to-private de-listing from the Oslo stock exchange valuing the business at £382m at that time. HgCapital subsequently continued to hold a stake in the business and supported Visma’s continued growth over the next eight years, before re-investing again in 2014 (through its HgCapital 7 Fund), alongside both KKR and Cinven.

Visma gives investors ongoing exposure to a leading provider of mission critical accounting, resource planning and payroll software to small and medium-sized enterprises as well as the public sector in the Nordic region. HgCapital has known Visma and its management team since 2004 and will continue to support the business going forward in order to grow revenues both organically and through acquisitions.