IK's Questel acquires MultiLing

In order to finance the bolt-on, additional capital was injected from IK VIII Fund, which held a final close on its €1.85bn hard-cap in November 2016. A debt package also supported the acquisition.

The GP acquired Paris-based intellectual property advisory business Questel in April this year, together with French GP Raise.

The MultiLing acquisition is part of Questel's strategy to build a one-stop-shop offering. MultiLing's translation activities complement Questel's ITIP Foreign Filing activities and the enlarged group will reach an annual turnover of around $100m, with 500 employees worldwide.

Company
MultiLing was founded in 1988 and is based in Utah, US. It offers patent translation services and has 235 employees across eight countries. It serves 350 clients globally (mostly large corporations) in their process of international filing of patents. 

Questel was founded in 1978 and is headquartered in Paris. It is an intellectual property advisory business that provides international filing, document delivery, patent drafting and defensive publication. Questel generated revenues of €45m last year and it expects to reach an EBITDA of €18m in 2018, according to a previous report by Unquote.

People
MultiLing – Michael Sneddon (CEO, founder).
Questel – Charles Besson (CEO).
IK Investment Partners – Dan Soudry (managing partner).

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