Auctus sells Valantic to DPE

The founding shareholders and management, led by Holder von Daniels, have retained a stake of approximately 25% in the business.

The sale ends a holding period of almost six years for Auctus, during which the platform made 12 bolt-ons and increased its revenues by a factor of 20.

Auctus made the exit from Auctus III, its €155m 2010-vintage buyout fund. Auctus declined to comment on returns but the divestment is understood to be within its target range of 4-5x.

DPE drew capital from its third buyout fund, which closed on €575m in January 2017. Valantic will be its seventh platform investment.

The GP plans to continue and accelerate the growth strategy initiated under the stewardship of Auctus.

Both private equity firms are likely to be back on the fundraising trail this year, Unquote understands. Auctus has set the target for its fifth fund at €250m, while DPE could raise up to €1bn for its fourth.

Previous funding
Auctus acquired Valantic (then Dabero) in 2012, at which point it generated sales of around €6m. Since then the DACH-based software buy-and-build platform has made more than 10 add-ons and expects to generate sales in excess of €120m for 2018.

Most recently it acquired Austrian digital consultancy Elements.ai in December.

Auctus hired Raymond James to sell the asset in August last year, based on EBITDA of €15m - but this was prior to the most recent acquisition.

Company
Valantic is a digital consultancy and enterprise software company that assists its clients with digitalisation and financial services automation. It was founded as a buy-and-build strategy by Auctus with the acquisition of Dabero in 2012, which itself was founded in 1997. The company now employs 800 people in 20 locations in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Luxembourg, and the US.

People
Auctus Capital Partners – Nicolas Himmelmann (partner).
Deutsche Private Equity – Guido Prehn (managing director).
Valantic – Holger von Daniels (founder and CEO).

Advisers
Vendor – Raymond James (corporate finance).
Acquirer – Latham Watkins (legal); Alvarez & Marsal (financial due diligence); Flick Gocke Schaumberg (tax); Wachter Digital Partners (commercial due diligence).

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• Topics
• Buyouts
• Exits
• DACH
• Technology
• Secondary buyout
• AUCTUS Management GmbH & Co KG
• Deutsche Private Equity
• Germany
• Buy-and-build