Invision sells RSD to Argos Soditic

Katharina Semke and Alice Tchernookova
12 April 2016

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Invision, together with investment foundation Renaissance PME, have sold Swiss software company RSD to French private equity firm Argos Soditic.

During Invision's ownership, RSD focused on the development and launch of its information governance software Glass. The business also established an engineering site in Bratislava and further expanded in the US and Asia.

Prior to the sale, Glass was carved out and sold. Following Argos's acquisition, RSD will focus on its core products EOS and Folders. The GP also wants to increase investment in product innovation and sales resources, and is planning add-on acquisitions. RSD is the 13th company in the portfolio of Argos's Euroknights VI fund. The vehicle closed on its €400m hard-cap in December 2010.

Argos Soditic will help RSD improve its strategy by investing mostly in product innovation and its salesforce. While growth should happen mostly organically, Argos Soditic said it does not exclude future acquisitions.

A source close to the deal indicated that RSD's management will retain a stake of less than 10% in the company, which might increase at post-closing stage.

While the exact value of the deal has not been disclosed, the same source confirmed it was within the €50-100m range.

Senior debt for the deal was provided by UBS Bank, and represents around 50% of the total value of the deal.

Previous funding
Invision and Renaissance PME acquired RSD in 2007 as part of a succession solution from its founder Louis Pierre Roger.

Company
Founded in 1973 and headquartered in Geneva, RSD develops and sells enterprise-grade software solutions for distributed output and report management.

Through its main software suite, EOS, the company facilitates identification and management of output data streams and can fully automate report and content archiving. Its products are used in high volume datacenters and other content-intensive businesses.

The company has additional offices in the US and in Asia, with revenues of CHF 22m.

People
Argos Soditic – Cédric Bruix, Karel Kroupa, William Blair (partners).
Invision – Martin Spirig (partner).
Renaissance PME – Xavier Paternot (managing partner).
RSD – Pierre van Beneden (CEO).