Hg invests in AUVESY

RNS Number : 6630V

HgCapital Trust PLC

16 April 2021

 

Hg, the Manager of HgCapital Trust plc ("HGT"), today announces an investment in AUVESY GmbH ("AUVESY"), a leading global provider of version control and change management software solutions for automated industrial environments. 

The terms of the transaction have not been disclosed and the transaction is subject to completion.

HgCapital Trust plc will invest approximately £7.4 million in AUVESY, with other institutional clients of Hg investing alongside HGT through the Hg Mercury 3 Fund.

HGT, whose shares are listed on the London Stock Exchange, gives private and institutional investors the opportunity to participate in all Hg's investments.

Note that these figures only relate to HGTs share of Hg's overall investment in AUVESY.

HGT's liquid resources available for future deployment (including all announced transactions, the proposed full-year dividend payable in May 2021 and equity raised via tap issuance) are estimated to be £129 million (10% of the 28 February 2021 pro-forma NAV of £1.3 billion). In addition, HGT has access to a £200 million standby facility, which is currently undrawn.

The investment will reduce HGT's outstanding commitments to invest in Hg transactions to approximately £493 million (37% of the 28 February 2021 pro-forma NAV).

Hg invests in AUVESY

to support the business' leading position in the growing industrial automation sector

Landau, Germany and London, United Kingdom: 16 April 2021 - Hg, a leading global software investor, today announces an investment in AUVESY GmbH ("AUVESY"), a leading global provider of version control and change management software solutions for automated industrial environments. 

As part of the transaction, the AUVESY management team will maintain a significant investment in the business whilst the former majority owner Brockhaus Private Equity has fully exited its position. The terms of the transaction have not been disclosed and the transaction is subject to completion.

Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Germany, AUVESY is a provider of version control software for smart production machinery and other industrial Internet of Things ("IoT") devices. AUVESY manages over 5 million industrial IoT devices across 45 countries, serving over 700 loyal customers.

Software developed by AUVESY enables its customers with automated production facilities and other smart machinery to automatically backup, secure and centralise their machine data and executable code. Customers also benefit from fully-featured change management, detailed change detection, easily comprehensible documentation, and a high degree of user-friendliness. All machine level data is easy to backup and access when needed, simplifying maintenance, and freeing up time for optimising production processes. Downtime is significantly reduced, due to easy and reliable code management, trouble shooting and disaster recovery. The AUVESY software product "versiondog" is in use across a wide range of sectors, including automotive, chemical, energy, food & beverage, pharma and utilities.

AUVESY is the first investment from the Hg Mercury 3 Fund and represents the 8th investment in Hg's Automation & Engineering cluster focus, including the recently announced agreement with Trackunit. The investment will support AUVESY's position in a growing sector, which sits an important inflection point as shopfloors and industrial devices are getting increasingly digitalised, requiring version control solutions from a technical, cybersecurity, compliance and, for certain industries, even a regulatory perspective.

Dr. Tim Weckerle, CEO of AUVESY, said: "This is positive news for everyone at AUVESY and I thank all my colleagues who have worked so hard to get us to this very strong position. We are delighted to be partnering with a software expert in Hg. We see their operational experience and expertise in areas such as international sales, marketing and M&A being hugely beneficial to the future growth of the firm, all supporting our 'Never Stand Still' mission to ensure that our customers around the world experience less down time in their production."

Benedikt Joeris, Director at Hg, said: "AUVESY is a highly innovative business, building a leading position in industrial IoT version control software globally. We see significant growth potential in this sector, both across new industry verticals and expansion into additional use cases. AUVESY is incredibly well positioned to benefit from this potential. Its excellent software enjoys high customer satisfaction and loyalty due to the efficiency increase and risk protection it provides."

Markus Reithwiesner, an industry advisor at Hg and serving board member for several companies in the production and industry automation sector, will join AUVESY as Chairman: "Digitalisation at the shopfloor level is an increasing requirement across many sectors right now. As this trend continues, AUVESY is well positioned to enable customers to follow this trend. We see significant room to grow dynamically in the years ahead and look forward to working with the team."

"As a technology investor focusing on high margin companies in innovation-driven markets, AUVESY was a perfect fit for our investment strategy when we acquired the company from its founders in 2017. After having supported the company in internationalisation by opening offices in the USA and in China, we see a prospering future for AUVESY" added Marco Brockhaus, founder and Managing Director of Brockhaus Private Equity.

For further details:

Hg

Laura Dixon  [phone]

Brunswick

Samantha Chiene                                                                           [phone]

[e-mail]

About HgCapital Trust plc

HgCapital Trust plc, whose shares are listed on the London Stock Exchange (ticker: HGT.L), gives investors exposure through a liquid vehicle to a portfolio of high-growth private companies in the software and services sector. The selection of new investments and creation of value in these businesses are managed by Hg, an experienced and well-resourced private equity firm with a long-term track record of delivering superior risk-adjusted returns for its investors. For further details, please see www.hgcapitaltrust.com .

The contents of the Hg, HgCapital Trust, AUVESY and Brockhaus Private Equity websites are not incorporated into, and do not form part of, this announcement.

 

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