Capita to sell Eclipse to PE-backed Access UK for £56.5m

The enterprise value represents a multiple of 14.1x Eclipse's adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and capitalised development costs. The deal comes six years after Capita acquired the company. 

Access Group, owned equally by Hg and TA Associates, is a B2B provider of business management software for finance, HR, and payroll departments of UK mid-market organisations in various sectors. Hg's investment in the company in April 2018 valued the company at £1bn.

Capita will use the proceeds from the sale, due to complete on 30 June 2020, to strengthen its balance sheet.

Eclipse's senior management team will transfer with the business. 

Eclipse's gross assets at the end of 2019 were £20.5m and its profit before tax in 2019 was £5.5m.

In a separate announcement, Capita said that it was also preparing to dispose its education software business Education Software Solutions.

Company
Founded in 1987 and based in Bradford, Eclipse is a mid-market legal software developer for case, matter and practice management, operating in the UK legal market. It employs 170 staff and in 2019 recorded a statutory profit before tax of £5.5m. 

People
Capita – Jon Lewis (CEO).
Eclipse – Pete O'Brien (managing director).

Advisers
Vendor – Harris Williams (financial die diligence).

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