Triton takes Swedish IT consultant HiQ private in €387m deal

Private equity firm Triton Partners has completed the acquisition of listed Swedish IT company HiQ International for SEK 72 per share. The shares tendered in the public offer amount to 50.87 million shares, or 91% of the shareholding and voting rights in the company.

In August, the firm announced a public offer to the shareholders to tender all their shares in HiQ for SEK 70 per share. The price was increased on 15 September 2020 to SEK 72 per share, in a $458.3m bid (€387m), as reported by Dow Jones Newswires.

Triton Fund V, through Trisall AB, requested on 23 October the compulsory redemption of the remaining shares in the company.

According to HiQ, its board of directors applied for de-listing of the company’s shares from Nasdaq Stockholm. It said the last day of trading in the company’s shares “will be announced as soon as the company has received confirmation from Nasdaq Stockholm”.

Triton said it doesn’t expect the offer will have any significant effects for HiQ’s employees, their terms of employment, or employment at those sites where HiQ conducts its business today. Founded in 1995, the company currently has close to 1,500 staff.

HiQ’s business, which includes the public as well as industrial, telecom and automotive sectors, has remained fairly resilient throughout the pandemic.

Its sales fell 8% to 439 million crowns in the second quarter while its adjusted operating profit was down 12%, the falls curbed by accelerating digitalisation at many companies and public authorities.

“We look forward to actively supporting the management and employees of HiQ as a stable owner by investing in the growth and development of the company into a Northern European leader”, Peder Prahl, director of the general partner for the Triton funds, said in a statement.

Triton Partners, which was set up in 1997, is headquartered in London and invests in medium-sized businesses in Europe. It currently has a portfolio of 45 companies in the industrial, business services, consumer and health sectors with combined sales of €18.2bn.

 Source: Private Equity News