Carlyle sells ITRS to TA Associates

Kenny Wastell
07 March 2017

Tweet
Facebook
LinkedIn
Google plus
Send to

TA Associates has acquired UK-based financial software company ITRS Group from The Carlyle Group.

Under a holding period of five and a half years, the company grew its client base from 60 financial institutions to 170. ITRS also expanded its product range from an initial focus on capital markets to include hedge funds, exchanges and trading platforms, as well as introducing data analytics tools.

The business also undertook an international expansion strategy, opening a development centre in Manila in October 2011, an office in Singapore in September 2014 and a research and development facility in Malaga in December 2014.

Carlyle was invested in ITRS via its Carlyle Europe Technology Partners II fund, a €530m vehicle that closed in November 2008. The sale marks the sixth exit for the fund and comes a year after it divested orthopaedic implants specialist Groupe Marle to IK Investment Partners.

The transaction also represents TA's second European investment of 2017, following the acquisition of a stake in German software developer Think Project International in January.

The ITRS deal is expected to complete in April 2017.

Previous funding
Carlyle acquired ITRS in September 2011. Financial details of the transaction were undisclosed, though at the time the Financial Times reported the deal valued the business in the region of £50m.

Company
Founded in 1997 and headquartered in London, ITRS provides performance monitoring and risk management software for financial IT and trading systems. It employs 180 people across offices in the UK, US, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Spain. ITRS generated a turnover of £18m in the year ending March 2016, according to publicly available documents, up from £16m at the time of Carlyle's first investment.

People
TA Associates – J Morgan Seigler (managing director).
The Carlyle Group – Fernando Chueca (managing director).
ITRS Group – Guy Warren (CEO).

Advisers
Equity – Goodwin (legal).
Company – William Blair (corporate finance); Travers Smith (legal).