Astorg to sell Flowbird to Searchlight

Greg Gille
10 August 2021

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Searchlight Capital Partners has entered exclusive negotiations to acquire Flowbird, a French urban transportation and car parking service, from Astorg and Mellby Gård.

Astorg acquired a majority stake in Paris-based transportation and parking services company Parkeon for an estimated EUR 450m (11x EBITDA) in an SBO from ICG and European Capital in 2016. The vendors had both originally invested in 2013, taking over from Equistone Partners Europe.

The deal was the second investment made from Ardian's sixth buyout fund, Astorg VI, which launched in September 2015 and went on to close in 2016 on EUR 2.1bn.

In 2018, Parkeon acquired Cale Access, a Swedish developer of parking payment and enforcement solutions. The combined company was rebranded as Flowbird, with total revenues of EUR 300m at the time. Cale had been part of industrial holding Mellby Gård since 1997; the investor became a minority shareholder in Flowbird following the deal.

Searchlight is currently investing via Searchlight Capital III, which held a final close on USD 3.4bn in November 2020. It was launched in March 2019 with a target size of USD 2.75bn and a hard-cap of USD 3.25bn.

The US GP targets control positions in mid-market companies located in North America and western Europe in the consumer discretionary, communication services, information technology, industrials, consumer staples and, opportunistically, education sectors. The fund's equity ticket range is USD 100m-200m, with a targeted 15 total investments over its lifecycle.

Searchlight said it would support Flowbird's ongoing transition into a tech-enabled software company, while also facilitating further M&A.

Company
Flowbird's history dates back to 1968, when Parkeon's very first parking terminal was developed.

It currently offers parking management and public transport ticketing services, working with more than 4,500 municipalities in 80 countries. In addition, Flowbird manufactures ticketing equipment, validation terminals and associated software systems for public transport.

Parkeon's turnover prior to the 2016 deal by Astorg was EUR 225m with an EBITDA of around EUR 40m. According to Mellby Gård, Flowbird had revenues of EUR 267m in 2020 and employs 1,320 people.

People
Searchlight Capital Partners – Heber Ramos de Freitas (managing director).
Astorg – Stéphane Epin (partner).