Oakley sells Damovo to Eli for up to €140m

The agreement will see the acquirer making an up-front payment of €115m with a further sum of up to €25m due, subject to Damovo's financial performance in the year ending in January 2019.

The vendor will generate a 5.4x money multiple from the deal following a holding period of three and a half years, equivalent to an IRR of approximately 57%.

The transaction will generate proceeds of €39m up front, with the potential for future additional proceeds of up to €9.3m. It brings the net returns for LPs in Oakley Capital Private Equity II to 1.9x with an IRR of approximately 31%.

According to a statement, the business has more than doubled its EBITDA during Oakley's tenure.

Matthew Riley, founder of Oakley portfolio business Daisy Group, invested in Damovo alongside Oakley at the time of its initial investment, taking on the role of executive chair. Since then, Damovo has appointed Glen Williams as CEO and Stuart Hall as chief financial officer, who both previously worked with Riley at Daisy, a source familiar with the deal told Unquote.

Following the carve-out from trade vendor Damovo II, the new company integrated separate divisions in Germany, Ireland, Switzerland, Poland and Belgium into a combined group, introducing shared tools, systems and processes to create efficiencies, Unquote understands.

The business has also made three bolt-on acquisitions and increased its focus on securing longer-term contracts.

The deal is subject to regulatory approval.

Previous funding
Oakley acquired a majority stake in Damovo, then the European operations of Damovo II, in 2015.

Company
Founded in 2015 via a carve-out, Düsseldorf-headquartered Damovo provides IT services to enterprise and public-sector organisations.

People
Oakley Capital Private Equity – David Till (senior partner).
Damovo – Glen Williams (CEO).

Advisers
Company – EY, Richard Harding, Olivier Wolf (vendor due diligence).

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