Advent, Bain buy German payment service Concardis

As part of the deal, the GPs acquired the business from its previous shareholders, which include German private lenders Deutsche Sparkassen- und Giroverband, DZ Bank and the Frankfurt-based payment process operator VÖB-ZVD Processing.

The GPs acquired the business in a deal valuing the company’s equity at €700m, with Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and HSBC providing an undisclosed credit facility estimated at 5.5x the company’s EBITDA, unquote" understands.

The company aims to use the capital injection to boost investment in innovation and infrastructure. Moreover, the GPs aim to provide the business with additional capital and lead a market consolidation across the DACH region, according to a statement.

In a statement, the GPs claim a wide experience across the payment process sector, a statement affirmed in their deal history: in July 2010, Advent and Bain acquired card payment service RBS WorldPay from The Royal Bank of Scotland, for an enterprise value of £2.025bn. The deal saw the GPs split an 80% stake, while the management team retained the remaining 20% stake. The deal was at the time the largest deal in the UK for almost three years, according to unquote” data.

In April 2013, RBS WorldPay secured a £700m refinancing including a dividend recap for the private equity owners, according to reports. Subsequently, in October 2015, the GPs listed the company on the London Stock Exchange with a £4.8bn market cap and reaped an initial £1.2bn. The sellers retained a 48.7% stake with an agreed 180-day lock-up period. In April 2016, Bain and Advent sold a 14% stake in the business for £740m. Following the sale, the GPs retained a 28% stake in the company.

More recently, in March 2014, the GPs backed Danish payments provider Nets for DKK 17bn, which was floated two years later on the Nasdaq OMX Copenhagen in September 2016, valued at DKK 30bn. According to unquote" data, the IPO was the largest private-equity-backed listing in the Nordic region since 2010.

Lastly, in June 2015, Advent, Bain and Italian buyout house Clessidra acquired banking services provider Istituto Centrale delle Banche Popolari Italiane (ICBPI) in a €2.15bn deal. The private equity consortium entered exclusivity for ICBPI in May, having seen off competition from US firm Hellman & Friedman and two private equity consortiums.

Company
Founded in 2003 and headquartered in Eschborn, near Frankfurt, Concardis provides cashless payment processes, including contactless payment systems and card terminals. With subsidiaries in Switzerland and Austria, the business operates across the DACH region with a volume of transaction of €41.9bn. It employs a staff of 211.

According to a statement, in 2015 the business posted a turnover of €480m – a 6.6% increase from the previous year – and €25m EBIT.

People
Bain Capital Private Equity – Christophe Jacobs van Merlen (managing director).
Advent International – Jeff Paduch (managing director).
Concardis – Marcus W Mosen (CEO).

Advisers
Equity – Corestar Partners (corporate finance); Weil Gotshal & Manges (legal).
Vendor – Hogan Lovells International (legal).

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• Topics
• Buyouts
• Financials
• DACH
• Germany
• Advent International
• Bain Capital