Today’s News
Private equity giants Apax Partners, Bain Capital, and CVC are each considering placing bids for SoftwareOne, according to sources familiar with the matter. This development comes three months following the removal of the Swiss software company’s board.
Image Source: Global Capital
Discussions with interested funds are currently underway, with Bain and CVC frequently mentioned by four sources, and Apax also noted by two of them. The board shake-up at SoftwareOne occurred in April after it turned down a takeover bid valued at 2.9 billion Swiss francs (USD 3.27 billion) from Bain.
A spokesperson for SoftwareOne declined to comment but referred to a May statement in which the company acknowledged it had received multiple bids. On Thursday, SoftwareOne shares experienced an uptick of 2.6%, contrasting with a 0.6% drop in the European tech index.
During its first quarter 2024 trading update in May, SoftwareOne revealed that its board had been approached by several parties interested in a potential privatization, although no specific names were disclosed.
The matter is being advised by Jefferies, as noted by a fifth source. All five sources requested anonymity due to the private nature of the discussions. Jefferies has yet to respond to requests for comment.
Earlier in the year, founders Daniel von Stockar, Rene Gilli, and B. Curti Holding, who collectively own nearly a third of SoftwareOne’s stock, succeeded in ousting most of the existing board after it resisted selling to Bain.
The move was widely anticipated to make SoftwareOne an attractive target for acquisition again, as it had previously rejected multiple offers from Bain, stating that the offers lacked sufficient certainty and did not accurately reflect the company’s value. SoftwareOne employs over 9,000 staff and helps other businesses purchase and manage software from major providers like Microsoft, SAP, and Adobe.
(USD 1 = 0.8855 Swiss francs)
Other News
PwC China Partners Face Pay Cuts
In response to a regulatory probe and client departures linked to its auditing of the troubled China Evergrande Group, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is slashing the pay of its China-based partners by up to 50%.
Goldman Sachs Announces Senior Dealmakers
Goldman Sachs has reshuffled its investment banking leadership, appointing Carsten Woehrn and Nimesh Khiroya as co-heads of M&A in the EMEA region, and welcoming back Haidee Lee as global co-head of Sponsor M&A.
China’s Savers Resist Spending Push
Despite government efforts to stimulate spending through measures like interest rate cuts, Chinese consumers are choosing to save, with new deposits rising by 9.27 trillion yuan in the first half of the year.
