HG CAPITAL, GIC, MONTAGU PRIVATE EQUITY & ICG take majority stake in VISMA GROUP

HgCapital is leading a buying investor group to orchestrate a major equity restructuring of Nordic and Benelux software provider Visma. The transaction facilitates the full exit of KKR after a seven-year investment cycle and allows HgCapital to increase its ownership stake to 41%. The reconstituted shareholder structure introduces GIC (Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund), Montagu, and ICG as significant minority investors, while Cinven divests a portion of its holdings to retain a 17% stake. Visma’s management team will also roll over equity to maintain a 7% interest. Subject to regulatory approvals, this buyout builds upon HgCapital's long-term stewardship of the asset, which began with a public-to-private delisting in 2006 and was subsequently adjusted in 2014. This new LBO will leverage this expanded global institutional network to accelerate pan-European market expansion and drive Visma's ultimate transformation into a pure cloud computing (SaaS) business.

In the past, the company had already been the subject of several LBOs, notably led by Kkr in 2010 and Hg Capital / Kkr / Cinven in 2014. This succession of buyouts highlights the strong attractiveness of the company's business model.