FINANCE ACTIVE acquired by ALTUS GROUP

Alfa Laval has completed the 100% acquisition of StormGeo, a global provider of weather intelligence and decision support services, from owners including EQT and DNV GL. The transaction was structured as a cash-funded purchase, fully integrated into Alfa Laval’s Marine Division. The acquisition serves as a key pillar in Alfa Laval’s "decarbonization toolbox," designed to accelerate the company’s digital transformation. By acquiring StormGeo, Alfa Laval integrates high-end weather-based routing and analytics into its marine offering, providing an immediate upgrade to fleet performance and fuel efficiency for its customers. The move broadens Alfa Laval’s service scope, shifting from pure equipment-based hardware solutions to integrated, data-driven digital services that enhance the operational sustainability of its installed base. This deal represents a strategic benchmark for industrial conglomerates aiming to pivot toward "Industrial IoT" (IIoT) services. It highlights the growing importance of proprietary data platforms in traditional maritime hardware markets, signaling a trend where industrial equipment providers are acquiring specialized software companies to offer comprehensive efficiency solutions in response to global environmental regulatory tightening.

Abenex acquired a majority stake in EDL from its founders. This primary LBO aimed to professionalize the group's governance, provide it with the financial resources necessary to implement a buy-and-build strategy, and finally to transform the company from its position as a leader in France into a major European platform.

Astorg acquired a majority stake in Xceptor from CBPE Capital. The transaction was highly competitive, with Astorg prevailing over other top-tier sponsors (including Hg and Nordic Capital) with an all-equity bid. For the seller, CBPE, this exit is delivering a 10.8x Money Multiple and an 89% IRR after a four-year hold. Management reinvested significantly alongside Astorg to drive the next phase of growth, which focuses on US expansion and AI integration.

Hyland Software completed the acquisition of Nuxeo, taking full control of the French content‑services and digital asset management platform, including its products, technology, and open‑source community.  The strategic rationale is grounded in the content services and DAM convergence. Nuxeo brings a cloud‑native, low‑code, AI‑enhanced platform that complements Hyland’s existing portfolio, particularly in the areas of digital asset management, media‑rich content orchestration, and open‑source‑driven developer ecosystems. The acquisition supports Hyland’s push to become the largest open‑source‑oriented content services provider, reinforcing its cloud‑native roadmap and extending its footprint with additional customers, partners, and technical talent across Europe and North America. The integration of Nuxeo Insight, an AI and machine‑learning engine, allows Hyland to enrich large document and media libraries with business‑specific metadata, automate workflows, and generate actionable insights, thereby deepening its value proposition in information‑intensive verticals.

The transaction encompasses the full acquisition of StarBlue Inc. by Sangoma Technologies Corporation. From a strategic perspective, this cross-border integration is highly value-accretive, forging a top-tier unified communications entity capable of delivering a fully integrated suite of cloud, on-premise, and hybrid solutions. The combination completes the acquirer's long-term evolution into a pure-play SaaS platform, pushing pro-forma recurring revenues to roughly 70 percent. It strategically opens access to the lucrative enterprise segment and a vast network of over 650 channel partners.

Hg has finalized a majority investment in Geomatikk Group, a maneuver designed to fundamentally accelerate the group’s transformation into a European champion of underground mission-critical GIS data. The strategic rationale for this transaction centers on a "tech-scaling" play, merging the target's technical operational depth in infrastructure protection with the acquirer's proven track record in building business-critical software platforms. This structural alignment provides the organization with the institutional capital and strategic expertise required to pursue a definitive expansion beyond its core Nordic markets into broader Northern Europe. The operation specifically aims to replicate the successful "Visma model" of growth through systematic software enhancement and geographic consolidation. By incorporating the sponsor's strategic discipline and appoints of high-level industrial expertise to the board, the group is now positioned to leverage an integrated technology backbone to address the entire excavation ecosystem.

Eurazeo Capital and IK Partners have acquired a majority stake in Questel, alongside Raise Investissement and the management team. The strategic rationale for the deal is to finance and accelerate Questel’s ambitious external growth strategy, particularly in Europe, the US, and Japan. The transaction is supported by a €555 million ESG unitranche debt facility co-arranged by CAPZA, which includes an innovative margin adjustment mechanism based on the achievement of specific environmental, social, and governance criteria. This partnership aims to consolidate Questel’s leadership in the fragmented IP solutions market, leveraging the combined expertise of its new majority shareholders to continue its rapid scaling. For CAPZA, this marks a renewal of a long-term relationship with the group, transitioning from a previous shareholder role to a key debt provider.

Private equity firm Abenex, utilizing its dedicated Small Caps fund Abenex Croissance, has successfully completed the acquisition of healthcare software publisher Inlog from US-based industrial group Haemonetics. Executed on September 21, 2020, this corporate carve-out ends a 12-year integration within the American conglomerate, with Inlog's management team reinvesting alongside the new financial sponsor. The buyout is supported by a senior debt facility co-arranged by Banque Populaire Val de France and Caisse d’Epargne Rhône-Alpes. This transaction represents the fourth platform investment for the Abenex Croissance fund. For Abenex, the investment is designed to provide the necessary resources to institutionalize the internationally active software publisher and accelerate its operational growth. Leveraging this new financial backing, Inlog will expedite the development of new functional features for its CE-marked medical device software, which provides mission-critical blood product traceability and laboratory management solutions. Furthermore, the company aims to solidify its strategic partnerships with its base of over 250 French and European clients, which prominently includes university hospitals (C.H.U.) and the French Blood Establishment (EFS).

Apax Partners has entered into exclusive negotiations with Capgemini to acquire Odigo. This transaction marks a rare "triple-play" for the private equity firm, which previously held stakes in the company from 1997 to 1999 and again from 2007 to 2011 (when the company was known as Prosodie). Capgemini originally acquired the entity from Apax in 2011 for 382 million EUR. However, the anticipated synergies between the IT services giant and the software subsidiary did not fully materialize, leading to a decline in profitability over the last decade. The strategic rationale for Apax is to relaunch Odigo as a standalone software leader in the competitive CCaaS market. By carving out the asset from Capgemini, Apax aims to refocus the company’s R&D and sales efforts to regain market share in the cloud customer-service space.

The transaction involves the 100% acquisition of Silae by Silver Lake from its five founding partners. The strategic rationale is driven by Silver Lake’s ambition to accelerate the company’s growth in the TPE/PME segment and expand its functional scope into a full-suite HR software provider. The deal was initially funded 100% with equity from Silver Lake’s Fund V and its successor fund, with a planned debt push-down at a moderate leverage of 3.0x to 4.0x EBITDA post-closing. This investment highlights a significant move by a premier US-based tech-focused private equity firm into the French mid-market, targeting high-quality SaaS assets with dominant domestic positions. Key post-deal objectives include optimizing the solution's ergonomics to shorten deployment cycles and pursuing targeted add-on acquisitions to bridge gaps in the product offering for larger corporate clients.