
Advent and Bain acquire Ratepay
Advent International and Bain Capital Private Equity have agreed to acquire online payment services company Ratepay from Otto Group for an undisclosed sum.
Ratepay will be integrated with Concardis, another recent joint acquisition by Advent and Bain, although Ratepay will initially retain its brand and operate as an independent company within the Concardis group.
The purchase of Ratepay is subject to approval by supervisory authorities; according to a press release, the acquisition of Concardis is also still pending.
In January 2017, the GPs acquired Concardis 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.
The GPs started investing together in the payment sector in 2007. In Europe, Advent and Bain first acquired RBS Worldpay for £2.05bn EV in July 2010, marking the largest UK deal for almost three years, according to unquote" data. During the five-year holding period, the investors spent €1bn to develop the business and subsequently floated it with a £4.8bn market cap in the largest London IPO of 2015.
More recently, the buyout consortium backed Danish payment services provider Nets for DKK 17bn in March 2014 and listed it two years later, valued at DKK 30bn, in the largest PE-backed flotation in the Nordic region since 2010.
In 2015, Advent, Bain and Clessidra bought banking service provider ICBPI in a €2.15bn deal – the largest buyout in Italy since late 2007.
Company
Founded in Berlin in 2009, Ratepay provides online payment systems with a full payment guarantee in the DACH region. Products offered include invoicing, instalment payments, direct debit and pre-payment. The company employs 100 people.
People
Bain Capital Private Equity – Christophe Jacobs van Merlen (managing director).
Advent International – Jeff Paduch (managing director).
Otto Group – Alexander Birken (CEO).
Advisers
Equity – PwC (financial due diligence, tax); Hengeler (legal); Weil Gotshal & Manges (legal); First Annapolis (commercial due diligence).
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