Bregal to acquire STP from Hg

Harriet Matthews
02 November 2020

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Bregal Unternehmerkapital has agreed to acquire Germany-based legal software business STP from Hg.

The deal remains subject to competition authority approval and is expected to close before the end of 2020.

Hg invested in STP alongside co-founder and former CEO Gunther Thies in 2016. The GP invested via Hg Mercury Fund and the deal was the GP's ninth from the vehicle. The fund held a final close in March 2013 on £280m and targeted TMT businesses with enterprise values of £20-80m.

STP employed 130 people and had a client base of 1,200 firms at the time of Hg's investment in 2016. It now employs 200 people and serves 2,000 customers.

Unquote sister publication Mergermarket reported in September 2020 that Hg had mandated Raymond James to run a sale process for the business. Mergermarket reported that the company rerorded EBITDA of €6.3m in 2018, marking an increase of 39.8% compared with the previous year. It generated revenues of €19m in 2018.

Bregal is currently deploying via Bregal Unternehmerkapital II, which held a final close in October 2018 on €1.3bn. The vehicle targets companies with EBITDA of €5-30m and deploys equity tickets of €30-150m.

Company
STP provides software for insolvency practitioners and law firms. The platform allows users to digitalise and automate processes, as well as to manage and plan workflow. Founded in 1993 and based in Karlsruhe, STP generally serves clients in the DACH region but also has a Bulgarian subsidiary.

People
Bregal Unternehmerkapital – Florian Schick (managing partner).
Hg – Arno Poschik (director); Stefan Margolis (partner).
STP – Gunther Thies (founder); Uwe Richter (CEO).

Advisers
Vendor – Allen & Overy (legal).