US private equity firm Hellman&Friedman signed an agreement to buy a controlling stake in TeamSystem Holding spa‘s capital (see here the press release). The group has been valued about 1.2 billion euros or 16x its FY 2015 expected ebitda (see Reuters).
Both Teamsystem’s managers and former controling shareholder Hg Capital will reinvest for a minority stake in Teamsystem. The fund was also testing an ipo on the Italian Stock Exchange (see here a previous post by BeBeez). Advisor to Hellman&Friedman for the deal was Mediobanca, while Rothschild supported HgCapital.
This is the fourth buyout round with private equity funds for the Italian group which is a leader in producing and distributing management software for businesses and professionals.
Bain Capital, who used to own a minority stake in Teamsystem, will completely exit its investment. bain Capital sold control in Teamsystem to Hg Capital in Summer 2010 after having invested in 2004 for the first time.
Bain had bought control of the group back in 2004 from Palamon Capital when it was valued 275 million euros. Palamon bought its controlling stake from Teamsyste’s founders in 2000 and it cashed in 4.1x the invested capital or a 52% Irr. Both the buyouts by Bain Capital and Hg Capital had been partially financed with a mezzanine loan by ICG Capital.
Founded in 1979 and led by ceo Federico Leproux, Teamsystem expects about 260 million euros in revenues this year from 240 millions in 2014 and counts about 200k customers.
In 2010 (as a basis for the buyout by Hg Capital) Teamsystem had been valued 565 million euros or 12x FY 2009 ebitda which had been 45.5 millions after 102 millions in revenues,
