Hg adds to Visma investment, valuing it as the largest ever software buyout globally – It has been announced this morning that Hg, the manager of HgCapital Trust (HGT), and its investors have agreed to a further investment in Visma, a leading provider of business-critical software to private and public enterprises in the Nordic, Benelux and Baltic regions. Hg will put forward the majority of the new invested capital in a transaction valuing the business at an Enterprise Value of NOK 110bn (US$12.2bn ), making this the largest ever software buyout globally.
HGT will invest approximately £17.1m in Visma, with other institutional clients of Hg investing alongside HGT. This transaction values HGT’s existing investments in Visma at £268.8m. This would represent an uplift of £69.1m (35%) or 17 pence per share over the carrying value of £199.7m in the NAV of HGT as at 31 March 2020.
About Visma
In the announcement, Visma is described as follows: “Visma’s strategy is to improve society through greater productivity. It does this by providing world-class, mission-critical, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) to over one million businesses in areas such as accounting, resource planning, payroll, HR and commerce applications. Visma is a true Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) champion and the largest provider of cloud-delivered SaaS to European businesses. This is the result of an early decision by Visma and Hg to invest in cloud and SaaS technology in 2008. This early investment has given Visma a leading suite of SaaS products across a number of sectors. Today Visma has over 11,000 employees, including 4,000 software developers who serve over one million business customers. The success in SaaS has resulted in uninterrupted, year-on-year, revenue and EBITDA growth over the last 15 years of (19% and 23% CAGR respectively).”
Nic Humphries, senior partner and head of the Hg Saturn team said: “Visma is Europe’s biggest success story in cloud software for businesses. This is a result of consistent investment in SaaS technology by Øystein Moan, Merete Hverven and their world-class team. Today we’re as excited as we’ve ever been about the future prospects of the business. Most recently, Covid19 has demonstrated the power of Visma’s cloud solutions – empowering businesses to stay connected and continue working through the crisis. We’re also delighted to welcome new investors, who join the other strategic investors already supporting Visma from across the globe.”
HGT: Hg adds to Visma investment, valuing it as the largest ever software buyout globally