Citizen Capital et al. exit Trace in €40m trade sale

The deal gives Trace an enterprise value of €40m. MTG is acquiring a 75% stake in the company for a cash consideration, with Trace's management retaining the balance.

The three exiting firms each held stakes of between 28% and 34% in the company.

MTG acquired Trace because of the company's African operations.

Previous investments
Citizen and Entrepreneur invested in the company in June 2010, acquiring it from Goldman Sachs. The two firms jointly acquired a 49.9% stake in the newco created at the time, while Trace founder and CEO Olivier Laouchez held the balance. Debt was provided for the buyout by ABN Amro and Caisse d'Epargne, according to unquote" data.

NextStage joined the company's shareholding in June 2012, with a €3.8m investment from its NextStage Champion Small Cap II fund. Citizen and Entrepreneur reinvested in the round, while management committed a further €1.2m to the business.

Company
Founded in 2003, Trace is headquartered in Clichy with additional offices located in South Africa and Nigeria. The company operates three music TV channels – Trace Urban, Trace Tropical and Trace Africa – as well as sports celebrity lifestyle channel Trace Sports Stars.

Trace's channels are available in 160 countries, including all 55 African countries, with Trace Urban available in 130 countries and Trace Sports Stars available in 108. The company also operates the Trace FM radio music station in the French Caribbean.

The company claims to have 37 million paying subscribers – up by 10 million from the end of 2012. Half of its revenues are generated in Africa and other emerging markets.

Trace employs more than 50 staff and recorded revenues of €19.3m in 2013. At the time of Citizen's and Entrepreneur's buyout in 2010, the firm generated revenues of around €12m.

People
Olivier Laouchez is the co-founder, CEO and chairman of Trace. Jørgen Madsen Lindemann is the president and CEO of MTG.

Citizen director general Pierre-Olivier Barennes and investment director Mohamed Abdesslam worked on the sale, while associate Bertrand Folliet and investment head Eric In managed the exit for Entrepreneur. NextStage president Grégoire Sentilhes and Michaël Strauss-Kahn managed the firm's investment in Trace.

Advisers
Vendors – Oddo Corporate Finance, Fatine Layt, Stephane Benouaich, Florian Touchard, Lucie Lapeyre (Corporate finance); Bredin Prat, Olivier Assant, Kate Romain, Guillaume Tormo (Legal); EY, Emmanuel Picard, François Poncet (Financial due diligence); EY Société d'Avocats, Frédéric Reliquet, Didier Tixier, Audrey Benguira (Financial due diligence).
Company – STC Partners, David de Pariente, Anne-Sophie Hebras (Legal).

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