Oakley Capital will combine PRIMAVERA with Ekon, one of its current portfolio companies
Oakley Capital Investments (LON:OCI), the listed trust that provides access to Oakley Capital’s private equity funds, has announced that Oakley Capital has reached an agreement to acquire PRIMAVERA Business Software Solutions, a Portuguese company.
Oakley will combines PRIMAVERA with Ekon, one of its current portfolio companies, a Spanish provider of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software to create a new group by the name of Grupo Primavera.
Subject to regulatory approval, the group will be the largest independent provider of business software in Iberia.
Having been founded in 1993, PRIMAVERA offers ERP and cloud solutions to more than 32,000 SMEs across Portugal and Portuguese-speaking African countries.
“The newly established group will be the largest independent software platform serving SMEs in Iberia, with over 55,000 customers, c.€60 million of revenues and double-digit annual growth, driven by the rapid adoption of Software as a Service (“SaaS”) solutions. Grupo Primavera will be led by Santiago Solanas, an industry veteran with over 30 years’ experience in global roles in the software industry, including leadership positions at Cisco in France and Southern Europe, Sage Iberia, as well as in Microsoft and Oracle,” Oakley Capital said in a statement on Tuesday.
Grupo Primavera’s plan is to accelerate its deployment of cloud solutions organically through investment in product development and go-to-market initiatives, as well as through further acquisitions.
Peter Dubens, Managing Partner of Oakley Capital, commented on the deal:
“This is another example of Oakley’s ability to invest in founder-owned technology businesses and execute buy-and-build strategies. With the adoption of cloud technology in Iberia being behind the rest of Europe, we see significant value and further potential in growing the largest independent business software platform to service SMEs within the region.”
José Dionísio and Jorge Batista, CEOs and Co-Founders of PRIMAVERA, added:
“We are very excited about the new path that we are taking by creating an independent Iberian business software champion. This is a project with great potential, bringing together companies with a wide range of experience and leadership within the sector. We have been approached by many potential partners over the years, but it is with Oakley Capital and Santiago Solanas that we decided to take this step due to the exciting project they presented to us.”
