UPDATE: Good morning Eurohubsters, Craig McGlashan here with the opening Dealflow of the week.
I spent much of the weekend trying to get my head around a shocking collapse, and no, I don’t mean Scotland’s Six Nations match against Ireland. We’ll have some recommended reading by our PEI Group colleagues on the fall of Silicon Valley Bank for you.
Elsewhere, we have the valuation and return on investment on Inflexion’s exit from software developer Mobica, while IK Partners’ Morgane Bouhenic features in our series of interviews with senior women in private equity (and we have an IK Partners deal to cover too).
We take a look at Triton’s latest purchase of some Caverion shares, plus deals involving One Equity Partners and Bridgepoint.
Collapse.
The financial world looked on in shock as Silicon Valley Bank – known to some as the “bank for private equity” – was taken over by US regulators late last week, while HSBC bought the UK arm of the lender.
We’d love to get your thoughts on what the collapse and HSBC takeover means for European private equity – send them over to me at craig.m@pei.group
In the meantime, I’d recommend you read Graham Bippart’s piece over at our affiliate title Private Funds CFO. Graham wrote that the bank’s fall “highlights and potentially exacerbates a large and growing supply gap in subscription credit lines”.
Also check out Chris Witkowsky’s piece for Buyouts. The fall of the bank is “disrupting the process GPs use to call capital from their limited partners”, sources told Chris.
Programming.
Inflexion has completed the sale of its stake in Mobica, a software development and integration services provider, to Cognizant.
Manchester-headquartered Mobica operates out of the UK, Europe and the US and supplies software developers to companies including Google, Arm and Dyson, according to a release.
Inflexion made a minority investment in the firm in 2015.
Check out our full coverage to find out the valuation of Mobica at sale as well as Inflection’s return on investment.
Plenty of room.
Next up, we have the latest in our series of interviews with senior women in private equity to mark International Women’s Day last week.
This time, PE Hub Europe’s Nina Lindholm spoke to Morgane Bouhenic, a partner at IK Partners’ small-cap investment team in Paris.
Bouhenic talked about her career so far and why she fell in love with private equity, but also had some words on the industry’s efforts to improve diversity.
She stressed that diversity is not just about filling a quota. “I strongly believe diversity – and not just gender diversity – is important for the success of any company, as it widens the talent pool, and it improves the decision-making process,” she explained.
“There is a place for everyone in this industry, and you don’t have to do it at the expense of not having friends or a family life,” she said. “If you want to do it, just go for it. There’s plenty of room for you.”
Infrastructure.
In the easiest segue of the day, IK Partners’ Small Cap III Fund will acquire Ipsum Group from Aliter Capital.
Ipsum, headquartered in Chorley, UK, is a provider of specialist infrastructure services across the UK’s regulated water and energy companies and private sector businesses. The firm employs around 570 people.
IK will be investing alongside Ipsum’s existing management team, according to a release.
Find out more on that deal here.
Upping stake.
We wrote on Friday morning last week that Triton Partners had bought up more of listed-Finnish construction firm Caverion, in which it is vying with Bain Capital to take control. The firm had bought or had entered agreements to buy around 22.8 percent of Caverion’s outstanding shares.
After market close on Friday, Triton announced that it had entered agreements to buy another 5.5 percent, taking its potential stake to 28.3 percent, which would make it the largest shareholder. The Bain offer has a threshold of 50 percent, down from two-thirds and the original 90 percent.
“We believe that our offer represents a superior alternative to the pending offer by the Bain Capital-led consortium and we continue to be surprised over their speculative and potentially distortive statements about our offer that they continue to make,” said Mikael Aro of Triton in a statement. “We on the other hand continue to put our money where our mouth is and demonstrate our commitment to Caverion through these share purchases. As mentioned before, we are moving forward with the regulatory approval process as planned and continue to expect clearance in the third or fourth quarter of 2023.”
The “speculative” Bain statements Aro mentioned likely refer to Bain arguing that Triton’s ownership of Nordic company Assemblin would mean its move for Caverion would be subject to competition authority scrutiny. Check out our in-depth piece on that from earlier this year for more details.
Banking.
Orion Innovation, backed by One Equity Partners, has acquired Banktech Software Services, a banking implementation partner for global financial institutions.
Banktech, based in London, is a multi-regional partner for Temenos, a global banking platform for large and small banks, challenger banks, and fintechs. The firm delivers Temenos services across Europe, Asia Pacific, and North Africa.
Luxury.
Bridgepoint will invest in Monica Vinader through Bridgepoint Development Capital IV (BDC IV).
Monica Vinader is a UK demi-fine luxury jewellery brand headquartered in London. The firm’s total sales have increased fourfold to around £100 million ($121 million; €113 million) since 2016, according to a release.
Check out more on the deal here.
Note: Bridgepoint owns PEI Group, the publisher of PE Hub Europe.
That’s it from me – speak to you again tomorrow.
Cheers,
Craig
Editor’s note: This article originally misstated Bain’s offer threshold as two-thirds, instead of the new value of 50 percent.
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