Blackstone talks DE&I for IWD; Main Capital-backed enventa bolts on syska

Syska provides accounting software to SMEs, and  serves more than 3,000 clients across the DACH region.

Good morning Eurohubsters, Nina Lindholm here with your middle-of-the-week Dealflow.

Happy International Women’s Day! To celebrate, PE Hub Europe today launches a series of interviews with senior women in private equity. We start our series with Natacha Jamar, a managing director in Blackstone’s Corporate Private Equity Group.

Elsewhere, Main Capital-backed enventa Group picks up bookkeeping and accounting software provider syska, and Permira is eyeing up an Italian clothing manufacturer. We also have a small update on Bain and Triton’s battle for Caverion.

IWD. Throughout March, PE Hub Europe will publish interviews with senior women in PE. To kick off the series today on International Women’s Day, Irien Joseph caught up with Natacha Jamar, a managing director in Blackstone’s Corporate Private Equity Group.

Jamar discussed how she got into private equity and what her experience with her first deal was like. I especially enjoyed reading about her journey in a male-dominated industry, and what sort of advice she would offer to others.

“I’ve always tried not to spend too much time worrying about how I might be at a disadvantage as a woman, and instead focus on how I can turn it into an advantage,” Jamar told Irien. “Firms are now so keen to attract and retain women, and as a result there are great networking, mentoring and training opportunities. My advice would be to take advantage of these programmes.”

You can read the full interview here. We look forward to sharing more interviews with women in PE this month, as there’s no reason we should confine the celebration to just one day.

Accounting. Moving on to a software deal: Main Capital Partners-backed enventa Group – a developer of business software for enterprise resource planning, business intelligence and treasury management – recently acquired bookkeeping software company syska.

Headquartered in Karlsruhe, Germany, syska provides accounting software to SMEs, and  serves more than 3,000 clients across the DACH region.

Main Capital invested in enventa in 2022. The group consists of business software companies Nissen & Velten (ERP), texdata (ERP), aruba BI (business intelligence) and Litreca (financial solutions).

“Since establishing our partnership with the enventa Group, we have strategically worked towards building a stronger and more sustainable company with a leading reputation. The combination marks yet another milestone in this collective journey,” said Sven van Berge Henegouwen, managing partner and head of operations for the DACH region at Main Capital. “The combination with syska will strengthen the group’s position within the ERP market whilst improving its footprint in the DACH-region. This move demonstrates the group’s commitment to further strengthen its ability to provide customers with a comprehensive, single-source solution.”

Read our full coverage on the deal here.

In style. Permira has been given access to the books of Gruppo Florence – a hub of Italian clothing manufacturers that supply luxury brands – to facilitate a potential sale, according to a Reuters report.

The Milan-based group is working with Bank of America and Citi to “access strategic options” having received interest from Carlyle and Permira, sources close to the matter told Reuters.

Gruppo Florence is majority-owned by Milan-headquartered VAM Investments. The firm acquired Florence in November 2020.

The sources told Reuters that Gruppo Florence was open for a possible listing if a deal with Permira did not happen.

Caverion clash. Next, we have a brief update for those following the fight between Bain Capital and Triton Partners for Finnish construction firm Caverion. Both firms have been busy posting updates on Nasdaq Helsinki this morning.

The Triton consortium, Crayfish, today commenced the voluntary public cash tender offer for all shares in Caverion. The acceptance period will expire on 17 May.

North Holdings 3, Bain’s consortium, stated in its posting that it is lowering the acceptance threshold of its tender offer from more than 66.6 percent to more than 50 percent of all shares.

On 24 February, Triton increased its previous offer of €8 per share to €8.95 per share. You can read more on that here, and a deep dive on the battle is available here, if you’d like to catch up.

That’s all from me today. Craig McGlashan will be back to write to you on Thursday and Friday.

Cheers,

Nina