Ufenau buys majority stake in Matrix Technology

Harriet Matthews
25 June 2020

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Ufenau Capital Partners has bought a majority stake in Germany-based IT outsourcing company Matrix Technlogy.

"We knew that the IT outsourcing sector is highly attractive and fragmented and that Matrix Technology is a regional champion in the south of Germany," Ralf Flore, managing partner at Ufenau, told Unquote. "We approached Matrix through our M&A adviser – but the owners of the company wanted to sell and had identified three directors to manage the company, which made it relatively easy."

Former owners and board members Franz Kessel und Martin Orlik will join the company's supervisory board, with directors Elmar Wefers, Stefan Mock and Peter Bauer taking over Matrix's management.

Ufenau made the all-equity investment via its sixth fund, which held a final close in March 2019 on €560m. The fund generally deploys equity tickets of €5-20m and aims to make 10-12 investments in companies with revenues of €15-150m. It is currently around 25% deployed and has made five investments.

Asked about Ufenau's strategy for Matrix Technology, Flore said: "Value creation will primarily be based on buy-and-build – we have done this for 22 platform companies. We want to digitalise the business further and increase its purchasing power. We can make bigger add-ons, too."

The deal marks Ufenau's second investment in the IT service sector in 2020. In April 2020, the GP acquired SAP integration services provider Ikor, which specialises in the financial services sector, as reported.

Company
Founded in 2000, Matrix Technology provides IT outsourcing and cloud services, offering specific products for financial and insurance sector companies. Matrix has 200 employees and reports sales or €30m, 60% of which are recurring revenues. The company is based in Munich.

People
Ufenau Capital Partners – Ralf Flore (managing partner).
Matrix Technology – Elmar Wefers, Stefan Mock, Peter Bauer (directors).

Advisers
Equity – Sancovia Corporate Finance (corporate finance); GÖRG (legal); Commercial Advisory (commercial due diligence).
Vendor – Schwarz-Schilling (legal).