Vitruvian invests €100m in Carne

Katharine Hidalgo
14 January 2021

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Vitruvian Partners invests тЌ100m in fund services business Carne Group.

The firm will take a minority stake in the business. It is currently investing from its fourth-generation fund, which closed on €4bn in July 2020. VIP IV will focus on companies with enterprise values of €75-500m and potentially up to €1bn. The typical investment to any one individual portfolio company is expected to be in the range of €35-250m with a holding period of three to five years.

The investment will go towards accelerating the ongoing developments of the company's products, as well as the expansion of its platform globally.

Working with corporate finance adviser Stephens Europe, Carne was exploring a sale of a minority stake in the business in October 2020, soon after it had accepted first round bids, according to a report by Unquote sister publication Mergermarket. The report put the company's EBITDA at around €10-20m, with revenues of €30m. Sources also told Mergermarket that the starting valuation for the business could be 13x EBITDA, though the company's technology system could mean the company warrants a multiple of 14x.

Company
Founded in 2004, Carne is a fund management service, managing governance, compliance, and regulatory and substance requirements for asset managers and institutional investors. It employs 350 people in eight locations across the world and is headquartered in Dublin.

People
Vitruvian Partners – Stephen Byrne (partner).
Carne – John Donohoe (founder, group CEO).

Advisers
Equity – KPMG Ireland Corporate Finance (corporate finance); EY (financial due diligence); PwC (financial due diligence) Oliver Wyman (commercial due diligence); Dickson Minto (legal).
Company – Stephens Europe (corporate finance); Deloitte (corporate finance); Matheson (legal).