Perceva takes majority stake in BPI

Greg Gille
14 February 2012

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Perceva Capital has taken a majority stake in French HR consulting firm BPI, through a capital increase and the purchase of existing shares in the business.

Perceva invested less than €15m from its maiden fund, France Special Situations Fund I, which closed on €150m in January 2011. It bought part of the stake held by BPI president Claude Paoli, who will retain a minority stake going forward. Perceva also bought the 25% stake held by the Malakoff Médéric group.

BPI initially entered exclusive negotiations with turnaround specialist Butler Capital in October 2011, but a final agreement could not be reached. Perceva had been involved in this earlier process and was able to strike a deal the second time around.

BPI was hit by the financial crisis and saw its turnover decline since 2009 - it was reportedly loss-making last year. Perceva however believes that the company's fundamentals are strong and that the new capital structure will allow it to capitalise on the good growth prospects for the management and HR consultancy markets.

The deal didn't require a new debt structure to be put in place.

Company
Founded in 1984, the BPI group is a global management and HR consulting firm headquartered in Paris. Operating a French network of 26 regional offices, BPI employs around 1,000 staff and posted a turnover of slightly less than €100m last year (compared to €117m for the previous year).

People
Christophe Ambrosi led the deal for Perceva Capital. BPI president Claude Paoli will act as chairman of BPI's supervisory board.

Advisers
Equity - Veil Jourde, Géraud Saint Guilhem, Sylvain Clérambourg (Legal).
Company - GGSM, Marc Baffreau, Sandra Matas (Legal); Sodica, Pascal Loison, Rébecca Ganancia (Corporate finance).