Oakley Capital to buy Spanish business software firm Ekon – Following on from reporting a strong set of results for FY18, on the back of several successful exits (https://quoteddata.com/2019/03/oakley-capital-2018-profits-beat-wider-market-strong-exits/), the private equity trust Oakley Capital (OCI) has announced the acquisition of Spain-based Ekon, a leading provider of business software. The business is being bought from Unit4, N.V.
Should the deal close (subject to a demerger process), Ekon will be Oakley’s first foray into Spain and would fit into a wider strategy of growing the TMT allocation. OCI’s indirect contribution through its interest in Fund III, is expected to be approximately £20m.
Ekon provides scale in a fragmented market
Ekon, which was setup in 1963, provides enterprise resource planning (ERP) software to over 1,000 small and mid-sized businesses in Spain. The company generates revenues of around €20m from sales of its integrated software suite, which includes solutions for finance, payroll and CRM, as well as dedicated vertical modules for manufacturing, wholesale, health, retail and construction.
The service is available in on-premise and hosted deployments, or via Ekon’s Cloud. The company is one of the few local players of scale in a market that, aside from the dominant international firms, is highly fragmented.
Commenting on the deal, Peter Dubens, OCI managing director, notes: “With highly visible revenues, a loyal customer base and a clear structural growth opportunity, Ekon demonstrates many of the key characteristics that OCI targets in an investment. We believe the business has a best-in-class solution and is well positioned to capitalise on the growing demand for cloud ERP.”
OCI: Oakley Capital to buy Spanish business software firm Ekon