Nordic Capital exits Point Group

VeriFone has agreed to acquire all equity in the business for €600m and to retire existing company debt worth €170m. The total value of the transaction is believed to be around SEK 7.5bn, which would represent a double-digit multiple for Nordic Capital.

Nordic Capital has supported Point with a strategy focusing on R&D, customer retention and expansion into new and existing markets. Notably, the company has established a presence in the UK and France – markets which are now believed to represent more then 20% of its net sales. Customer retention was achieved by replacing the licensing of terminals with monthly subscriptions alongside value-added services.

Point has acquired a number of companies and grown significantly under Nordic Capital's ownership. In 2007, it acquired the terminal business of Norwegian Steria. In 2009, it added British Commidea, which later acquired trade player TS3. In 2010, it established a presence in Denmark and France, acquiring CTcoin.dk and Xileo Transaction Systems respectively. Most recently, it took over Norwegian Adimo and French Paybox Services in H1 2011.

The company has increased its total number of point-of-sale terminals from 180,000 to 600,000. Since the effectuation of the buy-and-build strategy in 2007, the company has doubled net sales from €70m to €140m. EBITDA is also thought to have doubled over the same period.

Previous funding
Nordic Capital took a 90% stake in Point International in a 2004 MBO, establishing a buy-and-build platform. The deal, which included an acquisition facility, was valued at around €55m.

The investment was made from the Nordic Capital V fund, which closed at €1.5bn in May 2002. It is believed that little or no further capital has been injected in the business.

Company
Point, founded in 1987, provides electronic payment solutions to 250,000 customers in the Nordics, Baltics, UK, and France. The company has installed around 600,000 point-of-sale terminals in various store sizes, ranging from independents to major high street retailers. It also provides eCommerce payment solutions.

Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, it currently employs around 800 staff and recorded €140m net sales in 2010.

People
Partner Fredrik Näslund and investment managers Daniel Berglund and Johan Lundén worked on the deal for Nordic Capital. Johan Tjärnberg is the chief executive of Point.

Advisers
Vendor – JP Morgan (Corporate finance); SEB Enskilda (Corporate finance); White & Case (Legal).

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