Equistone in €1bn Global Blue exit

Carmen Reichman
24 May 2012

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Equistone Partners Europe (formerly Barclays Private Equity) has sold travel payment service provider Global Blue to Silver Lake Partners and Partners Group in a €1bn deal.

The sale takes the total capital returned to investors from Equistone's Fund III to 60%. The €2.4bn vehicle, raised in 2007, has so far realised eight of its 38 investments.

Previous investment
Equistone bought Global Blue (then Global Refund) in a €360m management buyout from Apax Partners in 2007. The company doubled its turnover and increased its EBITDA from €35m to €97m during the holding period.

Around 70% of revenues came from targeting travellers outside Europe, particularly Russia and China, and improving tax-free shopping through digitisation, according to the GP.

Global Blue now handles around 20 million tax-free shopping transactions and 7.3 million currency conversion transactions annually, double the amount it processed in 2007.

Company
Global Blue was founded as Sweden Tax Free Shopping in Gothenburg in 1980. It provides travel-related payment services including tax refunds on oversees shopping and dynamic currency conversions. It also offers marketing services to merchants.

The company's current headquarters are in Nyon, Switzerland. The business has a presence in 41 countries and employs 1,400 people.

People
Owen Clarke is CEO at Equistone. Per Setterberg is president and chief executive of Global Blue while Philipp Manser and Arjen Kruger were recently appointed as CFO and chief marketing officer respectively.

Advisers
Equity – JP Morgan (Financial due diligence); Evercore Partners (Financial due diligence); Marlborough Partners (Debt advisory); Clifford Chance (Legal).
Vendor – PricewaterhouseCoopers (Financial due diligence); LEK (Commercial due diligence); Clifford Chance (Legal); Bird & Bird (IP due diligence).
Management – Smith Square Partners (Financial due diligence); Baker & McKenzie (Legal).