Middle-market investment bank Harris Williams & Co has acted as exclusive advisor to Visma Sverige Holding AB (Visma) on its divestment of market-leading mass hosting providers Loopia and Active 24 to Axcel Management A/S (Axcel).
The transaction was led by Thierry Monjauze and Sylvain Noblet of Harris Williams & Co’s Technology, Media & Telecom (TMT) Group and Krishna Patel of the firm’s London office.
Loopia and Active 24 offer web domains, shared web hosting and value-added services such as security, e-commerce and Microsoft Office 365. The products are sold online on a prepaid subscription basis to around 350,000 SME and prosumer customers across primarily Sweden and the Czech Republic, with a further presence in Norway, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Netherlands, Germany and UK. The business has been owned by Visma and is headed by John Hugosson as CEO.
“It was a privilege advising Visma, one of the largest software companies in Europe,” says Thierry Monjauze, a managing director at Harris Williams & Co. “The management team has created a differentiated platform and we look forward to seeing its continued growth in the years ahead.”
“Visma’s hosting division has become a leading provider of mass hosting services in Sweden and the Czech Republic by combining unmatched customer service and high levels of automation,” added Sylvain Noblet, a vice president at Harris Williams & Co.
Visma makes businesses more efficient, through offerings of software, commerce solutions, retail IT-solutions, and IT-related projects and consulting. Visma simplifies and digitalises core business processes within the private and public sector. In Northern Europe, 760,000 customers utilise Visma’s products and services, and an additional 350,000 use Visma as a hosting partner. The group has 6,700 employees and its net revenue amounted to EUR985 million in 2017.
Founded in 1994, Axcel is a Nordic private equity firm focusing on mid-market companies and has a broad base of both Nordic and international investors. Axcel has raised five funds with total committed capital of just over EUR2.0 billion. These funds have made 52 platform investments, with almost 100 major add-on investments and 39 exits. Axcel currently owns 13 companies with combined annual revenue of around EUR1.4 billion and some 6,300 employees.
