Apax buys Lutech from One Equity

The deal values the company at around €500m, according to press reports. This would equate to a valuation of approximately 8.8x the company's 2019 EBITDA.

One Equity hired Raymond James in November 2020 to run the sale of the business. The process attracted several bidders, including Apax and French IT group Atos, according to press reports.

The sale ends a four-year holding period for One Equity, which bought a controlling stake in Lutech from majority shareholder Laserline – a holding company managed by Lutech chair Enrico Magni – and 16 minority shareholders. Following the transaction, Laserline fully exited the business and Magni left his role as chair. To finance the acquisition, the GP deployed capital from One Equity Partners VI, which held a final close on its hard-cap of $1.65bn in February 2017.

Under One Equity's ownership, Lutech completed several add-ons, including the acquisition of IT system integration service Sinergy in October 2017; the bolt-on of business intelligence specialist CDM Tecnoconsulting in October 2018; the purchase of e-commerce company Tecla.it in November 2018; and the add-on of Italian software developer Disc in May 2019.

Company
Founded in 2001, Lutech produces software dedicated to IT system integration, serving around 3,000 customers in eight countries.

The company employs 2,600 staff across its three divisions, LutechTechnology, LutechDigital and LutechProducts.

Headquartered in Milan, Lutech also has a presence in France and Germany. The business generated EBITDA of around €57m in 2019 from a turnover of €440m.

People
Apax Parters – Gabriele Cipparrone (partner).
One Equity Partners – Jörg Zirener (managing director).
Lutech – Tullio Pirovano (CEO).

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• Buyouts
• Southern Europe
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• One Equity Partners
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