Cash and treasury management is the opening theme of the day, as Nina Lindholm talks to Inflexion’s Sergio Ferrarini about the company’s recent investment in the sector and what makes it attractive right now.
Next up we have some price guidance info on an IPO by an Apollo-owned Italian gambling company, and an acquisition of a Switzerland-headquartered but African-focused business by Development Partners International.
We then round things out with news of a new partner at CapMan Growth.
Cashing in
The cash and treasury management sector is “highly attractive”, Inflexion partner and head of technology Sergio Ferrarini told PE Hub Europe’s Nina Lindholm. The sector is enjoying double-digit growth, which is being accelerated by companies adopting services in the segment, typically alongside their enterprise resource planning (ERP), according to Ferrarini. “It’s mission-critical software for companies, which creates high stickiness that we obviously like.”
The private equity firm believes the Nordic and DACH regions offer consolidation opportunities for Nomentia, a treasury and cash management software provider. Inflexion agreed to acquire a majority stake in Nomentia from PSG Equity and Verdane, via its Inflexion Buyout Fund VI, in early March.
Headquartered in Helsinki, Nomentia processes over €1.2 trillion of payments through its bank connections annually. The company’s services include payments, bank connectivity, cash visibility, forecasting, trade finance and risk management.
“Nomentia is one of the few platforms of scale in Europe,” said Ferrarini. “We’re backing it to become the market leader in its core markets, particularly in the Nordics, DACH and the Benelux.”
“The market is still fragmented, particularly in Europe,” Ferrarini added. “There still are several small national players, which creates an opportunity for market consolidation. This is particularly true in the mid-market segment, which we believe today is still underserved.”
Check out the full interview here.
Listing
Apollo Global Management-owned Italian gambling company Lottomatica Group has got the ball rolling on its Milan IPO, the plans for which we reported last week.
Lottomatica has set the price range at €9 to €11 per share, implying a market cap of €2.265 billion to €2.67 billion. Apollo agreed to buy Lottomatica from International Game Technology in December 2020, with a sale price of €950 million and enterprise value of around €1.1 billion.
The offer period will run from 24 April to 27 April. Investors will be able to buy up to €600 million of shares, comprising a maximum €425 million of new shares and a maximum £175 million of existing shares offered by Gamma Topco, the direct parent company of Lottomatica. Gamma Topco announced last month that the proceeds of the sale were expected to in part go to repayment of a €150 million intercompany loan from Gamma Bondco, a wholly owned subsidiary of Topco.
Lottomatica had €1.4 billion of revenues in its 2022 financial year, making it the largest firm by revenues in the Italian gaming market, according to a release.
Chemicals
Next up, Development Partners International (DPI) has acquired Solevo Group, a Geneva, Switzerland-headquartered company that operates as a distribution platform for specialty chemicals in Africa. DPI bought in alongside minority co-investors South Suez and DEG.
The deal has an overall value of $250 million (€228.7 million), which includes the buyout plus some debt funding, PE Hub Europe understands.
The investors have acquired 100 percent of the company.
Helios, alongside Temasek, acquired Solevo in 2017 via the corporate carveout of Louis Dreyfus Company’s African Inputs business.
“It consistently achieved double digit annual operating profit growth rates driven by revenue growth and margin expansion,” said Nimit Shah, partner at Helios Investment Partners.
Partnering up
CapMan Growth has appointed Tomi Alén as partner, effective from June.
Alén was previously senior vice-president, strategy, and corporate development, at Relex Solutions. He’s no stranger to CapMan though – before joining Relex two years ago, he spent seven years at CapMan Buyout, most recently as investment director.
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