Good morning Eurohubsters, Nina Lindholm here with Friday’s Dealflow.
As Craig McGlashan wrote yesterday, this week has extended a flurry of pharmaceutical deals, to the point that I could write a sequel to my own pharma round-up. Towards the end of the week though, a couple of interesting tech and financial services deals have also popped up, which we’ll take a look at. Tech especially is having an interesting week, with public tech valuations in meltdown. I also do have to mention Elon Musk – his takeover of Twitter is reportedly complete.
Bluebird. Let’s get this out of the way first. According to several outlets (click here for the BBC), Elon Musk has completed his $44 billion Twitter takeover.
Musk tweeted “the bird is freed”, implying that the deal had closed. While Twitter has not confirmed the takeover, an early investor in the company told the BBC that the deal had been completed. Several top Twitter executives have been fired as part of the takeover, according to reports.
If you’re interested in reading more of our reporting on the Twitter saga, take a look here and here.
Nosedive. Staying on tech for a moment, the Financial Times describes this week as “brutal” for Big Tech, with nearly $800 billion wiped off valuations. The stock market losses accelerated late on Thursday, after Amazon’s weak forecast for the holiday season. According to the FT, the Seattle-based ecommerce company expects revenues $15 billion below the predicted $155 billion.
The pain from the forecast extended to the wider ecommerce sector. The news left the combined value of the five largest tech companies, including Alphabet, Apple, Meta and Microsoft, approximately $950 billion lower than when the earnings season began, according to the FT.
If you have thoughts on the effects of the Big Tech valuations on private equity tech dealmaking, drop me a line on nina.l@peimedia.com.
Private debt. Moving on to European deals. Nuveen, the Chicago-headquartered asset manager and a subsidiary of TIAA, announced the acquisition of Arcmont Asset Management, a European private debt manager.
London-based Arcmont has raised more than $26 billion of capital from more than 350 blue-chip investors and has committed over $20 billion to 270 transactions across Europe.
The acquisition will create a new entity, Nuveen Private Capital, in which Arcmont and New York-based Churchill Asset Management will work in partnership. The combined committed capital reaches over $60 billion, bringing Nuveen’s firmwide alternative credit assets under management to $178 billion.
“We are delighted to join Nuveen, which offers Arcmont an optimal partnership to grow our existing business model, as well as invest in complementary adjacent strategies, leveraging Nuveen’s considerable expertise and distribution capabilities,” said Anthony Fobel, Arcmont CEO. “Drawing on the strengths of the enlarged group, we expect to extend our market position in our core business of upper middle market lending in Europe. We look forward to working closely with our new partners and expanding together into new strategies and complementary products across geographies.”
Staying positive. Back to the digital world for a moment. IK Partners announced an investment in French digital platform and services company Plus que PRO. London-based IK made the investment alongside the company’s co-founders Gregory Regouby and Sacha Goepp, who will retain control and management of the business.
Plus que PRO is based in Alsace and was founded in 2014. Its digital platform aims to let craftsmen and small to medium-sized enterprises elevate their online presence.
“Gregory and Sacha have built an impressive business in the competitive digital services sphere in France,” said Pierre Gallix, managing partner and adviser to the IK Small Cap III Fund. “The underlying market opportunity is set to grow further in the coming years and we believe that with additional capital and support, Plus que PRO has the potential to become a leading player in France and beyond.”
To find out what growth plans IK has for Plus que PRO, read the full report here.
A keen eye. Continuing with the tech and software theme, we have an add-on acquisition by a Keensight Capital portfolio company. Keensight-backed Bedford Consulting announced the acquisition of Bluesprint, which Bedford described as the largest independent Anaplan software consultancy and implementation partner in the Nordics.
Oslo-headquartered Bluesprint was founded in 2018 and is Bedford’s first acquisition since it gained Paris-based Keensight’s backing in May 2022.
Bluesprint, headquartered in Oslo, has offices across Sweden and Norway and works with clients such as TINE, Schibsted, Anticimex, Stena Line, Axis Communications and Ramirent. With the addition of Bluesprint the group has a sustainable growth trajectory of approximately 40 percent per annum, according to Bedford.
“The opportunities offered by Anaplan are unique and we strongly believe that Bedford Consulting is the best placed partner to leverage their growth potential in Europe,” said Yuri Mikhalev, partner at Keensight Capital.
That’s all from me today. I hope you all have a great weekend – mine will include some running as I build back up after some issues with an injury. You’ll hear from me again on Monday, as I’m on newsletter duty then as well.
Cheers,
Nina
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