Hg buys Transporeon from TPG

Katharine Hidalgo
29 January 2019

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UK-headquartered Hg has acquired Transporeon, a provider of cloud-based services to the industrial logistics sector, from TPG Capital.

The deal values the company at more than €700m, according to Bloomberg.

The investment will be made from HgCapital 8, a fund that held its final close in 2017 on its €2.5bn hard-cap. The fund is intended to invest in companies with enterprise values between £100-500m. The fund was 27% deployed as of August 2018, according to Unquote Data.

HgCapital Trust, the listed investment arm of Hg, will invest £35m in Transporeon, with other institutional clients of Hg's investing alongside.

TPG will make 2.5x return on the investment, according to Bloomberg. Under TPG's tenure, the company grew internationally and through acquisitions, such as the bolt-on of logisitics consultancy TIM Consult in August 2018.

The acquisition is another example of Hg's focus on B2B cloud-based software and network companies. Transporeon's strong financial profile, experienced management team and ability to leverage the network effect were all attractive factors for Hg.

TPG declined to comment on the transaction.

Previous funding
Belgian buyout firm The Riverside Company first took a majority stake in the company in 2011 using funds from its €420m Riverside Europe Fund IV with a debt facility that accounted for less than 50% of the total sum.

TPG Capital then bought a majority stake from Riverside and other shareholders based on an EBITDA of €16m. According to Unquote sister publication Debtwire, Bluebay and Berenberg Bank provided a unitranche loan of around €100m to support the deal.

Company
Based in Ulm, Germany, Transporeon was founded in 2000. The company boasts 100,000 users across 100 countries and employs 600 people in nine locations globally. The software-as-a-service is available in 24 languages for freight sourcing, carrier assignment, time slot management, visibility and market intelligence.

People
Hg – Stefan Margolis (director); Justin von Simson (managing partner); Jean-Baptiste Brian (partner).
TPG Capital – Malte Janzarik (partner).
Transporeon – Marc-Oliver Simon (co-founder, CEO); Martin Mack (co-founder, CTO).