Marlin Equity buys Bluegarden for DKK 500m

Marlin bought the company from a group of Danish banks, including Danske Bank and Nordea – which both own more than 5% of the shares in Bluegarden – as well as the Danish central bank, Nationalbanken.

Local newspaper Berlingske Business cites sources close to the process who put the price of the deal at DKK 500m, which would imply an entry multiple of around 8x EBITDA.

The deal forms part of a larger sell-off by Nordic banks of jointly-held assets, which began last year with the sale of payments giant Nets to Bain Capital and Advent International.

Danske and Nordea's corporate finance divisions ran the sales process; the banks will also provide the financing for the transaction.

Bluegarden was founded as Multidata, but acquired Norwegian payroll and HR software and services provider Bluegarden from listed Swedish GP Ratos for €31m in 2007 and took over the brand name.

Company
Founded in 1969, Ballerup-headquartered Bluegarden is a provider of payroll and HR administration software to companies of all sizes in Scandinavia.

The business has 11 offices across Denmark, Norway and Sweden, and serves nearly 65,000 customers, handling 20 million payslips a year, representing 20% of all salaried employees in Scandinavia.

Bluegarden had revenues of DKK 488m in 2014 and posted EBITDA of DKK 72m. The company employs a staff of 317.

People
Shawn McMorran is a partner at Marlin's London office. Peter Lybecker is the outgoing chair of Bluegarden.

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