HIG Europe (HIG), the European arm of global private equity firm HIG Capital, and FNZ Holdings Ltd (FNZ), a provider of Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions to the financial services sector, have entered into an agreement with growth equity firm General Atlantic whereby General Atlantic will acquire a minority stake in FNZ alongside HIG and the management team. Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
HIG backed an MBO of FNZ in early 2009 and the Company has since experienced rapid organic growth supporting its existing blue-chip clients such as Standard Life and Axa as well as new client wins including JP Morgan, HSBC, AMP, National Australia Bank, Friends Life, UBS, Zurich Financial, Close Brothers Asset Management and Barclays Wealth. In 2009, the Company successfully entered the Australian market. Since early 2009, FNZ’s employees have grown from approximately 200 to over 560 with a presence in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and the Czech Republic.
Adrian Durham, CEO of FNZ, says: "General Atlantic’s strong international reach and strategic capabilities will be of great value to FNZ as we continue to grow and invest in further innovation to enhance our value proposition and remain at the cutting-edge of wrap platform services and solutions."
John Bernstein, Managing Director at General Atlantic, says: "We are deeply impressed with the extraordinary achievements of Adrian and his team over the past few years. General Atlantic backs world class high growth companies and we are pleased to be partnering with an international market leader in an exciting space that is undergoing profound change and rapid growth."
Matthias Allgaier (pictured), Managing Director at HIG, says: "General Atlantic will be an excellent value-added partner for FNZ given its strong track record in growth equity investing, excellent international reputation and expertise in the financial services sector. We are delighted at the prospect of having them on board as we continue to support FNZ through its next phase of growth and international expansion into Asia and other key geographies. While the transaction provides an attractive partial equity realisation for HIG Europe, the decision to maintain a significant stake in the business reflects HIG’s strong ongoing commitment to FNZ."
