The Swiss private markets specialist Partners Group inks a billion-dollar deal with US financial investor Blackstone. The exit comes at just the right time.
Swiss-based Partners Group agreed to sell Civica, a global provider of cloud solutions in the public sector, to Blackstone, the world's largest alternative asset manager.
According to an announcement issued on Wednesday, the British company that is changing hands serves 6,000 organizations in seven countries.
Under Pressure
The transaction details are not being disclosed although the news and information service «Bloomberg» (paywall) reported ahead of the deal that Civica was worth more than 2 billion dollars.
At the end of 2017, a Partners Group fund took over the group for somewhat more than $1 billion at the time, inclusive of outstanding debt. That means that it may have potentially doubled its money in that time from the investment.
The exit is coming at just the right time given the sharp pivot in interest rates and the difficult business environment. The private investment markets have come under pressure in recent months and relatively few companies are being sold right now, with overall M&A activity at a low point.
Flow of New Money
That means that significant transactions are needed to convince investors that private market funds are still able to get rid of their investments regardless of market conditions.
Should they not be in a position to do that, they could potentially experience difficulties in future rounds of financing. Despite that, Partners Group has remained confident, recently reconfirming its new money targets for 2023 and expected capital commitments of between $17 to $22 billion for its funds.
