Reinforces strong TMT track record following sale of HEG to GoDaddy

Cinven today announces the sale of 40% of its equity stake in Visma (‘the Group’), a leading provider of business critical software to SMBs in the Nordic and Benelux region, to a group of investors led by HgCapital.

An investor group led by HgCapital, an existing investor in Visma, together with GIC, Montagu and ICG, is also acquiring 100% of KKR’s stake in the Group. Cinven retains a significant minority stake in the Group. The total transaction is valued at NOK 45 billion (EUR 4.7 billion).

Cinven invested in Visma in April 2014 valuing the business at a total enterprise value of NOK 21 billion (EUR 2.5 billion). Cinven invested alongside KKR and HgCapital, each holding a 31.3% shareholding in the Group at that point. Cinven’s TMT team had identified Visma as an attractive investment given its market leading position in the Nordic region, its delivery of mission critical software to a wide customer base through a subscription model with high recurring revenues, and significant growth potential as customers migrate their legacy software applications to online cloud-based applications. Since 2014, Visma has performed strongly with attractive organic growth and numerous successful acquisitions, led by a high calibre management team.

Cinven has generated more than €4.5 billion of realised value since 2012 from its TMT investments. Its most recent TMT realisations include:

  • Host Europe Group (‘HEG’), the web hosting services provider, to GoDaddy Inc. for an enterprise value of over €1.7 billion (April 2017); and
  • Numericable, the French telecoms operator, following the final selldown of Cinven’s shares in the listed business (April 2016).

Completion of the transaction is subject to regulatory approval. Cinven was advised on this transaction by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.