HIG Capital buys Project Informatica

Intesa San Paolo, UBI Banca, MPSCS and Banco BPM provided a debt package to support the deal.

HIG intends to boost the company's growth both organically and via new acquisitions, with the aim of creating a consolidation platform across the IT services sector.

The GP deployed capital from its €825m fund HIG Europe Capital Partners II. The vehicle targets buyout and growth capital investments in lower-mid-market companies based across Europe.

HIG is also currently investing from Growth Buyout Equity Fund III, which closed on $970m in October 2018 and targets mostly North American businesses, but also considers some European opportunities.

Headquartered in Miami, with European offices in London, Hamburg, Madrid, Milan and Paris, HIG has around €34bn in capital under management and a portfolio that currently includes more than 100 companies with combined sales in excess of €27bn.

In addition to its equity strategy, dedicated to buyouts, recapitalisations and corporate carve-outs of both profitable and underperforming manufacturing and service businesses, HIG also manages its WhiteHorse credit affiliate, which provides flexible debt financing to mid-market companies based in Europe and the US.

The firm offers unitranche, senior and subordinated debt for refinancing, growth capital operations, acquisitions, buyouts and balance sheet recapitalisations. Credit facilities typically range between €10m and €75m for companies generating revenues of more than €40m.

Company
Founded in 1990 and based in Stezzano, near Bergamo, Project Informatica supports its customers in the digital transformation of business processes by providing tailor-made hardware and software.

Its offering includes software-as-a-service (SaaS), infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), cloud services, software-defined data centres and hybrid infrastructure.

Its client base is composed of private and public companies operating in a wide range of industries, including banking and financial services, manufacturing and business services.

Project Informatica employs 230 staff and generates annual revenues of around €130m.

People
HIG Capital – Raffaele Legnani (managing director, head of HIG Italy).
Project Informatica – Alberto Ghisleni (founder, CEO).

Advisers
Equity – Studio Legale Pavia e Ansaldo (legal); Boston Consulting Group (commercial due diligence); PwC (financial due diligence, debt advisory); Studio Spada Partners (tax); UBI Banca (corporate finance).
Company – Kon (corporate finance); Shearman & Sterling (legal).

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