Naxicap exits Acolad in management buy-back

The company, known as Technicis until early 2019, is valued between €300-350m and is expected to post a €28-30m EBITDA in December this year, Unquote understands.  

The sale process, led by Lazard, sees Qualium acquire a minority stake while CEO Benjamin du Fraysseix and his family reinvest significantly in the business. As a result, management is now once again the majority owner of the company. 

Qualium may bring in another minority co-investor, Unquote has learned. 

The transaction will be supported by a unitranche package provided by Idinvest and Barings, a person familiar with the situation confirmed to Unquote.

Acolad was expected to be marketed based on an EBITDA of around €14m, Unquote sister publication Mergermarket reported in January this year. Since then, the business bolted on the Dutch translation agency Liveword, previously owned by Bencis Capital Partners, in July. With headquarters in Amstelveen, the Dutch business posted revenues of €38m in 2018 and has a headcount of 180 people.

Qualium and Naxicap declined to comment on the transaction.

Previous funding
Capital Croissance acquired a minority stake in French translation service HL Trad in 2015 in an MBO that saw founders Eric Le Poole and Emmanuel Hacques retain control of the business. HL Trad's takeover was supported with a debt facility supplied jointly by Crédit Lyonnais and Banque Populaire Val de France.

Cairn Capital I, the fund used by Capital Croissance for the buyout, targeted companies valued at €30m or less. The GP did not reveal its contribution during the MBO, but it typically writes €2-10m equity cheques as a standalone investor with the fund.

Naxicap acquired a majority stake in Technicis in 2016, investing alongside management. 

Company
Founded in 1996, Acolad provides translation and interpretation services. Headquartered in Paris, it currently employs 820 people located across Europe (Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland, among others) as well as in Canada, the US and China. The group currently generates revenues of €160m, Unquote has learned.

The group launched its external growth strategy in 2012 and since then has bolted-on a group of corporates. VO Paris was the first bolt-on, followed by Cogen (2015), Translation Probst (2016), Arancho Doc (2017), TextMaster, HL Trad and AAC Global (2018) and Liveword in July 2019.

People
Acolad Group – Benjamin du Fraysseix (CEO).

Advisers
Equity – Eight Advisory (financial due diligence); Mayer Brown (legal); Lazard (corporate finance).

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