Wheels in motion for PE firm Advent to acquire UNIT4

Dutch ERP provider UNIT4 is setting up to be acquired by private equity firm Advent International for €1.17bn. The cash offer is conditional but as it follows a structured sales process, has the backing of the board and represents a 32% premium on the share price prior to UNIT4 announcing interest from potential acquirers (see here), there is not much to impede it. An alternative offer is only an outside possibility because at c18 times adjusted EBITDA, the Advent offer is a generous multiple, especially for a traditional software company transitioning from license to SaaS/subscription revenue, which is what this prospective deal is really about. The announcement went down well with shareholders, with the share price rising 8% on the news. TechMarketView subscribers can read our analysis of the proposed deal in HotViewsExtra here. 

Posted by Angela Eager at '18:26' - Tagged: acquisition   saas   cloud   software