Apax Partners Sells its 48% Stake in GlobalLogic to Partners Group for USD 1bn
Apax Partners has fully exited ER&D vendor GlobalLogic by selling its remaining 48% stake to Zug, Switzerland-based Partners Group. The transaction values GlobalLogic USD 2bn, and I assume that Apax received approximately USD 1bn for this 48% stake. Last year, Apax had sold its first 48% tranche for approximately USD 0.75bn, to Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board. This is a high financial return for Apax: it had had acquired 96% of GlobalLogic in 2013, for $420m, from investors including Goldman Sachs, Westbridge, New Atlantic Ventures, and Sequoia.
The buy is Partners Group, a PE known for its investment in BPO activities with Civica in the UK (softa £1bn investment in 2017), and SPi Global (Philippines, KPO, a USD 330m investment, also in 2017). In IT services and BPS, Partners Group also owns since 2013 CSS Corp (US, a USD 270m investment). Partners Group is therefore a newcomer in ER&D services (although CSS Corp has software product engineering capabilities).
The transaction values GlobalLogic to USD 2bn, an amount similar to what Altran paid for Aricent. GlobalLogic, which is headquartered in San Jose, CA, had revenues of USD 550m in 2017, enjoys 20% CC/CS growth, and has 12k FTEs. The company is a little short of Aricent in terms of revenues (Aricent had revenues of USD 650m-USD 700m), is larger in terms of headcount (Aricent has 11.5k FTEs), and is growing at CC/CS well below 20%, +13% in H1 FY18).
There are other similarities too. Like Aricent (with its 600 FTEs in Frog), GlobalLogic had acquired its own product design house, Method, although of a smaller scale (with a headcount probably around 200). GlobalLogic, like Aricent, has strong ties in the media and communication industry (which represents 30%-35% of its revenues), but is more diversified than Aricent. GlobalLogic’s other main sectors are high tech and commerce (~30% of revenues), medical devices and manufacturing (20%-25%), and automotive (15%).