Hg, the Manager of HgCapital Trust plc (LON:HGT), has today announced that it has agreed the sale of Transporeon, a leading cloud-based transportation management software platform, to Trimble in a transaction valuing the business at an enterprise value of €1.88 billion.
The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2023, subject to customary closing conditions including regulatory approvals.
HGT, whose shares are listed on the London Stock Exchange, gives private and institutional investors the opportunity to participate in all Hg’s investments.
This transaction values HGT’s investment in Transporeon at approximately £107.8 million. This would represent an uplift of £15.3 million (17% or 3.3 pence per share) over the carrying value of £92.5 million in the Net Asset Value (“NAV”) of HGT at 30 September 2022.
The sale marks the fourth full Hg realisation to a strategic buyer in the last 12 months, having previously sold Medifox to ResMed, Allocate Software to RL Datix and itm8 which merged with AddPro, all contributing to over $7 billion collectively returned to Hg clients, including HGT.
Note that these figures only relate to HgCapital Trust’s share of Hg’s overall investment in Transporeon.
Based on the 30 September 2022 reported NAV, the pro-forma NAV of the Trust is expected to be £2.07 billion (or 454 pence per share). HGT’s available liquid resources, which includes the undrawn bank facility of £142 million for future deployment (including all announced transactions and the interim dividend paid in October) are estimated to be £437 million (21% of the pro-forma 30 September 2022 NAV).
Hg agrees to sale of Transporeon for €1.88 billion
A highly successful partnership between Hg and the Transporeon team has led to continued strong revenue and EBITDA growth since 2019, furthering Transporeon’s mission to bring transportation in sync with the world.
Hg, a leading software and services investor, today announces the sale of Transporeon, a leading cloud-based transportation management software platform, to Trimble in a transaction valuing the business at an enterprise value of €1.88 billion.
Transporeon provides a leading cloud-based logistics and transport management platform, solving 360-degree freight problems by enabling automation, real-time insights and collaboration on €48bn of annual freight. This is all handled on a modern SaaS platform which enables more efficient tendering, dispatching, scheduling, real time tracking and better communication between the around 1,400 enterprises looking to move freight and close to 145 000 carriers – all whilst helping to reduce 30% waste in global transportation and to lower CO2 emissions.
A 20+ year focus on software businesses across Europe and North America led to Hg following the business and engaging with the team for almost a decade prior to investing in 2019. Since then, the business has seen strong growth and continued margin expansion across various cycles.
This robust performance has been enabled by continuous product investment and strategic initiatives, whilst also adding new offerings to Transporeon’s suite, both through additional partnerships and five strategic tuck-in acquisitions.
Stephan Sieber, Chief Executive Officer at Transporeon, said: “The past three years has significantly accelerated Transporeon forward in our mission to bring transportation in sync with the world. Innovation in our products and an expansion of the business has meant we have built a remarkable platform in a rapidly growing sector, with solutions that are in high demand globally. This would not have been possible without the software expertise delivered by Hg. The management team thank everyone at Hg and Transporeon who have worked hard together to put us in this very advantageous position”.
Stefan Margolis, Partner at Hg Capital Trust, said: “We tracked Transporeon for many years, impressed with its globally unique logistics network, solving real supply chain issues in a heavily under-digitized sector. It has been a hugely rewarding, working initially with the founders Marc and Martin, and then with Stephan and the team to build on this. We’re particularly proud to have enabled several new solutions which have proved immensely valuable to customers and the wider global community, like AI-based analytics and prediction tools to facilitate carbon footprint reduction, whilst also expanding our addressable sector via strategic acquisitions. We wish the team the very best wishes as part of Trimble”
Justin von Simson, Managing Partner at Hg, said: “Transporeon is at the forefront of freight industry digitalisation and its cloud-based solutions continue to reduce complexity and increase efficiency for a large fragmented global logistics sector. We’re delighted for the team. We’re also proud to continue to deliver on our purpose, to return funds back to clients, with $7 billion returned during 2022.”
The sale marks the fourth full Hg realisation to a strategic buyer in the last 12 months, having previously sold Medifox to ResMed, Allocate Software to RL Datix and itm8 which merged with AddPro, all contributing to over $7 billion collectively returned to clients in the last 12 months.
The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2023, subject to customary closing conditions including regulatory approvals.
