Francisco Partners takes Kewill private

The acquisition is following a bidding process in which Francisco reportedly bid £102.7m for the business, upping its offer from an initial £89.5m. The rival bidder was US buyout house Symphony, which bid £99.6m.

Centaurus Capital, SVG Investment Managers, RGM Capital and Pendragon Capital were existing shareholders of Kewill.

According to reports, Kewill will accrue a pre-tax loss of £740,000 on a £27.2m turnover in Q2 and Q3.

Company
Kewill is a Guildford-based software provider, focused on the fields of trade and logistics. Its products are set out to streamline customer's in-house processes, such as transportation and logistics, e-commerce and B2B integration. The company caters to around 7,000 clients, including Bayer, UPS and DHL.

Besides its UK presence, Kewill operates offices in Germany, the Netherlands, the US, Singapore and China. It was founded in 1972.

People
Deep Shah, partner, led the take-private on behalf of Francisco Partners. Paul Nichols is CEO of Kewill.

Advisers
Equity – HSBC (M&A); Kirkland & Ellis (Legal).
Company – Investec (M&A); Osborn Clark (Legal). 

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