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Leading private equity group EQT with $251 billion AUM has announced to buy United States digital consultancy group Perficient for $3 billion in an all-cash transaction, representing 75% premium to closing price on 29th April 2024.  The acquisition is made by EQT affiliate BPEA Private Equity Fund VIII.  Read - https://lnkd.in/dSx56JDm follow Caproasia | Driving the future of Asia Leading private equity group EQT with $251 billion AUM (EUR 232 billion) has announced to buy United States digital consultancy group Perficient for $3 billion in an all-cash transaction, representing 75% premium to closing price on 29th April 2024.  The acquisition is made by EQT affiliate BPEA Private Equity Fund VIII. Jeff Davis, Chairman of the Board of Perficient: “Today’s announcement is the result of a comprehensive review by the Board to maximize value for the company and its shareholders. We are proud of the role Perficient plays in delivering big thinking and innovative ideas, along with a practical approach to help the world’s largest enterprises and biggest brands succeed. With this agreement with EQT, we will provide our shareholders with compelling, certain cash value for their shares while continuing to support our clients in exceeding expectations, outpacing the competition, and growing their businesses.” Tom Hogan, President and CEO of Perficient: “Today marks a momentous next step for our company. This is an exciting new chapter that would not have been possible without our employees’ hard work and dedication to our clients, partners, and other stakeholders. EQT’s vision for Perficient aligns directly with ours, and I look forward to partnering with them as we continue on our global growth journey.” Hari Gopalakrishnan, Partner, EQT Private Capital Asia: “Perficient is well known for its world class end-to-end digital consulting capabilities, and unmatched global delivery. In recent years, the Perficient team has been successful in expanding the scope of their offerings, and we look forward to supporting them in driving further growth. We have significant experience investing in the digital technology space, and I am confident that this exciting partnership will help strengthen Perficient’s unique position in the marketplace.” EQT Group, Perficient, BPEA EQT

Why LMM Private Equity (PE) is Thriving Lower middle-market (LMM) private equity has shown distinct trends that set it apart from larger market segments in recent years. Key Factors Driving the Trend: ✅ Strong Deal Flow in Fragmented Markets • Targets are founder-led businesses in fragmented industries, such as healthcare, specialty manufacturing, and services like car washes • Ample opportunities to execute “buy-and-build strategies” by acquiring smaller businesses and consolidating them into larger, more efficient entities • Founders seeking liquidity create a steady deal flow, making them common targets. ✅ Attractive Valuation Multiples • Typically trade at lower EBITDA/SDE multiples (e.g., 3-7x) compared to larger firms (10-15x or higher) • Lower entry valuations provide higher potential for multiple expansion upon exit, as exit valuations often rise when businesses are scaled and professionalized • Investors can achieve strong returns without overpaying upfront. ✅ Operational Value Creation Focus • Strong emphasis on improving processes, professionalizing management, and optimizing revenue streams • Investors often work closely with businesses, sometimes serve as board members or advisors) to scale, streamline, and achieve success • Greater focus on hands-on value creation and building better businesses, with less reliance on financial engineering (e.g., high leverage). ✅ Resilience and Flexibility During Economic Uncertainty • LMM deals are often in essential services or niche industries that remain resilient during economic downturns • Smaller deal sizes allow for quicker adaptation to market changes • Lower leverage is typically used, which reduces financial risk during market downturns. ✅ Diverse Investor Interest • Family offices, independent sponsors, and smaller PE funds are increasingly active • Investors prefer the relatively high ROI potential, manageable deal sizes, and the opportunity to create meaningful value • With less competition from mega-funds, LMM investors can uncover hidden value that might go unnoticed in the broader market. ✅ Flexible & Evolving Exit Strategies • Secondary sale to PE Fund seeking exposure to the LLM business asset class • Exit to larger PE funds looking to acquire professionally scaled platforms • Sale to strategic buyers seeking to grow through acquisition • IPO (Initial Public Offering) opportunities for businesses that scale significantly • Liquidity events via sale and leaseback for asset-rich or capital-intensive LMM businesses. While the larger market focuses on scale and competition, the LMM sector allows for hands-on impact and greater return potential. Are you exploring opportunities in LMM? Let’s connect. I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences. #PrivateEquity #RealAssets #LowerMiddleMarket #ValueCreation #CarWashRollup

📈 Private Equity News for the Week! Welcome to your weekly dive into the private equity world! We’ve got the latest on major acquisitions, potential exits, and all the exciting developments you need to know. Let’s get into it! 🛒 PE Acquisitions: EQT Group Big Move 🚀: EQT is acquiring a controlling stake in GeBBS Healthcare Solutions for over $850 million through its BPEA Private Equity Fund VIII. This investment aims to boost GeBBS’ growth in healthcare outsourcing. With 13,000 employees worldwide, GeBBS is gearing up for significant expansion! Intermediate Capital Group (ICG)💰Record-Breaking Fundraise: ICG has raised a staggering €15.2 billion for its new European direct-lending fund, marking the largest fund of its kind. The fund focuses on providing loans to private-equity-backed firms across Europe. So far, 40% of the capital has been deployed, including investments in Adevinta ASA and GRUPPO FLORENCE. Xoriant 🌍Expansion with FEXLE Services Private Limited: Xoriant, the US-based consulting and IT services firm backed by ChrysCapital, has acquired Fexle, a Jaipur-based Salesforce consulting services firm. This acquisition will enhance Xoriant’s capabilities in Salesforce practices and AI-powered digital engineering. It’s their third acquisition since ChrysCapital’s $250 million investment last January. 🔄 PE Exits: Zelis🌟On the Market: Bain Capital and Parthenon Capital are exploring the sale of a 20-25% stake in Zelis, potentially valuing the company at $17 billion. They’re considering both private sale and IPO options, with Goldman Sachs and JPMorganChase advising. Discussions are ongoing. Aston Martin F1 Team🏎️ New Deal in the Works: Aston Martin F1 is nearing a deal to sell a 20-25% stake to US funds Accel and HPS Investment Partners, LLC Investments. This could value the team between £1.5 billion and £2 billion. The deal includes refinancing for the Silverstone campus, with Raine Group advising. No official comments have been released yet. That’s a wrap for this week’s private equity update! Stay tuned for more insights and trends. Have questions or want to chat about these developments? Drop us a line and let’s keep the conversation going! 💬 Disclaimer: This content is generated by AI and may not fully reflect the latest updates or developments. Always verify with official sources for the most accurate information. #PrivateEquityNews #WeeklyUpdate #Finance #Investments #PETrends #IndustryNews

The secondaries buyside is evolving: Accel-KKR has just raised more than $2.2 billion to back single-asset software continuation funds. Ardian StepStone Group Adams Street Partners and CPP Investments | Investissements RPC are among LPs in the blindpool vehicle. Accel-KKR will generally only invest in premier businesses via the strategy, managing partner Tom Barnds tells me. Details on Secondaries Investor https://lnkd.in/eqjZPX_b

S&P Global - Private equity deals regain momentum; buyout shops lead TMT sector M&A Global private equity and venture capital entries in 3Q totaled $161 b, up more than 27% from $126.56 b during the same period in 2023. Combine the third-quarter results with the $166.87 b private equity firms deployed globally in the second quarter, and you have the industry's biggest six months of dealmaking since the first half of 2022. ⮞ Private equity invested $52 b in the technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) sector in the third quarter, extending the 2024 recovery in TMT deal value. ⮞ Private equity activity in the TMT sector is surging as strategic buyers remained sidelined by concerns that deals will not survive heightened scrutiny from regulators, Steve Barth, a partner at law firm Foley & Lardner, said in an interview with Market Intelligence. ⮞ Blackstone Inc. backed the second-largest TMT deal announced in the third quarter, the planned $16.1 b acquisition of Australian datacenter operator AirTrunk Operating Pty Ltd. https://lnkd.in/e6_UCeAx

Specialty and Consumer Finance Capital Raises - September 16th-30th, 2024 Several notable transactions closed in the Specialty and Consumer Finance sector this week. If you would like more information on these deals or want to discuss the capital raising market for your company, please reach out to me. Merger/Acquisition and Corporate * XS Financial, a company specializing in equipment leasing solutions for cannabis and hemp operators, was acquired by Axar Capital and Mavik Capital Management through a public-to-private LBO. * SpottedRisk, provider of insurance services for the entertainment industry, was acquired by CAC Specialty, a subsidiary of Cobbs Allen. * Fraser Mackenzie Accelerator, a capital pool company, was acquired by Forward Water Technologies for an undisclosed amount. Accord Equipment Finance, a business unit of Accord Financial, was acquired for $63.2 million. * The Powderhorn Agency, a residential tanks service provider, was acquired by Coleville Partners through an LBO. PE Growth/Expansion * North Bridge, a real estate financing services provider focusing on commercial property-assessed clean energy (C-PACE) financing, received development capital from The Carlyle Group to expand its operations. PIPE * Fraser Mackenzie Accelerator received CAD 1.7 million of development capital through a private placement over two tranches. Early Stage VC * 275 Funding, operator of an investment platform for accredited investors, raised $25.42 million of venture funding. * Yellow, a developer of a decentralized broker clearing network for blockchain trading, raised $10 million of venture funding in a deal led by Chris Larsen. * Knapsack, developer of AI-driven knowledge management tools for businesses, raised $1.11 million. #castleplacement #capitalraising #privateequity #venturecapital #specialtyfinance #consumerfinance #investment

𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝘄𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗮 𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 It is worth reflecting on why we are doing things differently compared to our peers. Nearly everyone in the business of “buying companies” raises a fund (structured as a General Partner/Limited Partner partnership) modelled after private equity. They are typically compensated based on the Internal Rate of Return calculated as the growth in investor capital divided by the time period from time of acquisition to time of an exit. As Charlie Munger says, “show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome.” It is not surprising that private equity firms maximise leverage and aim to “flip” their acquisitions in the shortest possible time. They are playing with other people’s money and other people’s businesses. Your risk, as a limited partner or seller of business, is their reward. If private equity’s business model was completely aligned with its investors, then perhaps this is a fair trade. The reality, however, is that their business model has strayed further and further from this. Many large private equity firms make the majority of their revenue from management fees rather than performance-based fees. Heads they win, tails they win more. Their goal has become to raise as many large funds as possible, regardless of their ability to deploy this capital to achieve exceptional returns. There is another, less obvious, challenge of the private equity model. In private equity, the cash flows from a cash-generating business with low growth potential cannot be redeployed into a capital-hungry business with high growth potential. In essence, each “deal” needs to stand on its own until sold. It seems short-sighted, almost irrational, to invest so much time, energy and money into a great, profitable and cash flowing business, only to sell or abandon it just years later because it hasn’t met an artificial growth rate, dictated by a spreadsheet. 𝗔𝗿𝗯𝗼𝗿 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗢𝘄𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀: 𝗛𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗫 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲 The advantage of a holding company model is that it creates an internal capital market. In the hands of a skilled team, this allows a kind of discretion and long-term thinking that is impossible to achieve on a “deal by deal” basis. We think of our internal capital market as not only financial capital, but also human capital. Our aim is to share best practices frequently between companies and help place our Operating Partners into whichever roles have the highest possible leverage. We believe that our edge lies in acquisitions that are too sub-scale, too operationally unsophisticated, or too long-term minded to be good bets for private equity.

#KeynesNoteN6 : How to Invest in Private Equity ? There are a few (A) direct and (B) non-direct ways to invest in PE. A-1 #Direct_Purchase_of_PE : Direct Investments involve purchasing equity stakes in private companies. These investments are typically made by institutional investors or high-net-worth individuals, often through private equity firms. This approach requires significant capital and involves hands-on management, including active participation in the company’s strategic decisions. 2- #PE_Fund : * #Buyout_Funds : These funds acquire controlling stakes in companies, typically with the goal of improving their operations and exiting at a profit through a sale or IPO. * #VC : Targeting startups and early-stage companies, venture capital investments provide growth capital in exchange for equity. * #GrowthEquity : Focused on mature companies that require capital to expand, these investments are less risky than VC but still offer high growth potential. 3- #Co_investment : This involves investing alongside a private equity firm in a specific deal. It provides direct exposure to an individual investment without the broader exposure of a fund, often without additional management fees. B-1 #Fund_of_Funds (FoF): A FoF is an investment vehicle that holds stakes in multiple PE funds. This strategy reduces risk by providing diversification across different sectors, stages of business development, and private equity firms, but usually comes with additional layers of fees. 2- #PE_ETFs : An Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) tracking an index of public companies that invest in private equity. It allows investors to access private equity markets without high minimum investment thresholds, but involves management fees and brokerage commissions. 3- #PE_Mutual_Funds : These funds have exposure to private equity but are subject to strict regulations limiting their allocation to illiquid assets. They offer an indirect way to participate in PE with more liquidity, although with higher fees and lower returns than direct investments. 4- Business Development Companies (#BDCs): BDCs are public companies that provide small and medium-sized businesses with capital in exchange for equity or debt. Investing in BDCs offers exposure to private equity through the stock market, with the benefit of liquidity and regulatory oversight. 5- Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (#SPACs) : SPACs are publicly listed shell companies created to raise capital through an IPO and use it to acquire a private company. Investors in SPACs gain exposure to private equity-type investments but face risks due to limited diversification and a pressure to invest quickly. 6- #Crowdfunding : Equity Crowdfunding allows individual investors to buy small equity stakes in private startups and SMEs via online platforms. Though this offers democratized access to private equity, the investments are generally riskier and less liquid. N’hésitez pas à partager vos avis sur le sujet en commentaire !

In a busier than usual Friday morning for #PrivateEquity dealmaking, this morning the PE Hub Wire had Inflexion agreeing to buy finanzen.net GmbH, a digital broker and financial information portal in the DACH region, from Axel Springer, a business that was recently split up in a deal involving KKR and CPP Investments | Investissements RPC. We share the enterprise value on the Inflexion deal. We also have the latest in our popular listicle series. It’s a bit of a novel approach this time – we’re looking at private equity firms investing in service providers for their own industry. We ahave Ardian exiting a couple of positions in the transport sector, Mutares SE & Co. KGaA agreeing to buy a road logistics business from Finnish state-owned VR Group. https://lnkd.in/dFCXAAeu

Private Equity and C-Level as a Service: A Perfect Partnership Private equity firms, with their complex and demanding needs, are uniquely positioned to benefit from C-Level as a Service (CLaaS). Our extensive experience allows us to deliver top-tier expertise across all lifecycle stages of your portfolio companies. Let's explore how CIO as a Service oder Transformation as a Service can serve as your ideal partner to maximize value at every phase: ♦ Phase 1: Pre-Deal Technological landscapes often harbor hidden risks that can become costly surprises. Without the right expertise, critical issues like gaps in security architecture may go unnoticed, while valuable opportunities for digital transformation are easily overlooked. CLaaS provides an objective assessment of the technological risks and opportunities within a target company, offering strategic insights on how to drive value creation from a technological standpoint. ♦ Phase 2: Post-Acquisition & Integration Delays in integration can be detrimental, especially when IT systems fail to align. With CLaaS, you have a trusted partner to ensure rapid IT integration or even a complete build from scratch if necessary. We offer thorough evaluations and analyses of both potential and security risks, followed by the swift execution of integration steps—without compromise. This minimizes downtime and accelerates the value creation process. ♦ Phase 3: Value Creation Value creation is our forte. We specialize in generating rapid, visible results that drive momentum, coupled with sustainable growth strategies that lead portfolio companies toward digital excellence. Our focus is on enhancing efficiency through IT-driven transformation, data analytics, and digital intelligence. However, fundamental modernization and empowerment is often also required. By leveraging cross-industry knowledge, CLaaS not only brings companies to the forefront of digital innovation but positions them as leaders in their field. ♦ Phase 4: Exit Preparation In the final phase, CLaaS plays a crucial role in ensuring that potential buyers have no doubts about your company's technological capabilities. We conduct final optimizations of IT operations, run strategic pilots in AI and automation, and design roadmaps to prepare for future technological advancements to make your company an attractive acquisition target. Our technology-focused exit preparation helps maximize the exit deal so you will realize the full potential of your investment. C-Level as a Service provides tailored, precise, and flexible support at every phase—on-demand and without lengthy onboarding processes. We serve as your technological partner, bridge-builder between PE - boards - business teams, transformer, and improver. Close your next deal with the best resources at your disposal—whenever you need them. Let’s handshake. Ahoi, KHS. ⚓ Deutsche Private Equity (DPE) Deutsche Beteiligungs AG Orlando Capital GmbH OMERS Infrastructure EQT Group KKR CVC