Ardian sells its stake in Altares to Naxicap Partners

The deal sees Ardian fully exit the company and Naxicap take over as majority shareholder in the group, eight years after Ardian first backed Altares.

With Ardian's backing, the group raised its turnover from €54m to €60m. The group's growth was mainly driven by digitalisation and diversification of product ranges, the company said in a statement.

Previous funding
In 2008, Ardian (then known as Axa Private Equity) took a 57.1% stake in Altares. Gérard Jeulin, who previously held a majority stake as company chairman, reduced his stake to 30% and became chairman of the new supervisory board. The management team, led by the management board's new chair Thierry Asmar, held 12% of shares following the transaction.

Financing for the deal was structured with A and B senior tranches, and provided by Calyon and Banque Palatine, with a mezzanine tranche provided by Indigo Capital.

Company
Altares is a B2B information provider. The company offers information pertaining to subjects such as changes to companies' legal information, new customer prospects as well as credit ratings, solvency and financial information.

The company, based in Nanterre, was formed in 2004 through the merger of the BIL Legal Information Database and Dun & Bradstreet France.

Altares currently offers its clients access to a database containing information about more than 240 million companies in 220 countries. The company currently counts 300 collaborators and record €60m in sales.

People
Ardian – François Jerphagnon (CIO); Marie Arnaud-Battandier (managing director); Arthur De Salins (investment manager).
Naxicap Partners – Éric Aveillan (CEO); Laurent Sallé (partner); Aurélien Dorkel (investment director); Clémence Rousselet (associate).

Advisers
Vendor – Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners, Christophe Marchand, Christian Menard, Arnaud Petit, Sara Rachele Napolitano, Mohamed Rtel Bennani, Gregory Fradelizi (M&A); Latham & Watkins, Olivier Du Mottay, Coline Dermersedian, Marie-Emeline Cherion (legal); 8 Advisory, Stéphane Vanbergue, Benoit Bestion (financial due diligence); Roland Berger (environmental due diligence); EY (tax, environmental due diligence); KPMG (IT due diligence).
Equity – Edge, Matthieu Lochardet, Claire Baufine-Ducrocq (legal); Accuracy, Rodolphe Pacciarella, Arnaud Lambert, Florence Westermann (corporate finance); Fidal, Florence Olivier, Xavier Houard (tax, environmental due diligence, legal); Eleven, Ambroise Huret, Morand Studer, Maxime Caro (commercial due diligence); Octo, Jean-Damien Blanc, Philippe Benmoussa (IT due diligence).

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• Topics
• France
• Consumer
• Exits
• Buyouts
• France
• Ardian (formerly Axa PE)
• Naxicap
• Secondary buyout