SOFTWAY MEDICAL acquired by BAIN CAPITAL

The international investment fund Bain Capital has entered into exclusive negotiations to execute a majority stake acquisition in Softway Medical, facilitating the transition from its historical shareholders. Following a competitive single-round auction process initiated in September 2024, the acquirer prevailed over competing bids from major global funds including Blackstone, Permira, Warburg Pincus, and EQT. The transaction values the software publisher at an enterprise value above €1bn, reflecting an EV/EBITDA multiple of Above 20x. Under the proposed capital restructuring, the incoming sponsor will deploy capital from its dedicated European vehicle to secure approximately two-thirds of the equity. The existing institutional backers, Five Arrows and Naxicap, will reinvest a portion of their proceeds to retain a minority block, while the executive management team is slated to hold roughly 10 percent of the final shareholding structure. At the time of this buyout, the acquired platform recorded an annual €100–200M and generated an estimated €50–100M. The financing architecture supporting this leveraged buyout relies heavily on a proposed unitranche debt facility structured to provide leverage exceeding 5.5 times earnings, with the private credit provider Arcmont positioned as a primary candidate for the allocation. Strategically, this corporate transaction aims to fund the target's immediate international expansion into adjacent European geographies, specifically targeting the Benelux region and the German market. The financial sponsors intend to leverage the established software architecture to aggressively capture market share across borders, eliminating localized competition while continuously deploying their product suite. To orchestrate this complex cross-border transfer of control, the selling consortium mandated Evercore Partners—represented by Charles Andrez—and Harris Williams to conduct the financial auction. Conversely, the acquiring fund retained the specialized services of Natixis Partners alongside Cambon Partners, with advisors Laurent Azout and Gabriel Giscard d’Estaing, to manage the buy-side financial engineering. This definitive agreement marks the first direct French investment for the acquirer's current European fund generation.