Silver Lake to amass software program firm Qualtrics in $12.5bn deal
US non-public fairness group Silver Lake has agreed to purchase Qualtrics for $12.5bn alongside Canada’s largest pension fund within the largest non-public fairness buyout of the 12 months.
Silver Lake assembled one of many heftiest fairness cheques for a personal fairness buyout, which lowered the financing burdens of the deal. The manoeuvre helped talks progress regardless of a dearth of buyout financing as a consequence of rising rates of interest and rising issues concerning the well being of broader monetary markets. The group can pay $18.15 per share, which values Qualtrics at $12.5bn.
The deal is the fruits of a months-long negotiation as Qualtrics proprietor SAP labored to divest its 71 per cent stake as a part of a restructuring of the German software program group.
“Silver Lake has each the operational experience and the observe document with software program corporations to assist Qualtrics lengthen its management within the [experience management] class it pioneered,” mentioned SAP’s chief government Christian Klein.
Fairness financing will probably be greater than $10bn, whereas debt will probably be simply $1bn. The dearth of leverage is predicted to supply monetary flexibility for brand spanking new progress investments.
Qualtrics invented specialised software program analytics instruments that assist corporations reply to their on-line prospects. It generated $1.5bn in annual gross sales final 12 months, a 36 per cent improve, with greater than 80 per cent of these revenues coming from recurring subscriptions.
The consortium consists of co-investors in Silver Lake’s funds and CPP Investments, which is able to present $1.75bn.
Ryan Smith, the billionaire co-founder of Qualtrics who in 2018 bought the Utah-based software program group to SAP for $8bn, can be anticipated to take part within the deal.
“I couldn’t be extra excited for this step in our journey,” mentioned Smith. “Silver Lake’s perception in our imaginative and prescient and their superb observe document of serving to founders and administration groups speaks for itself.”
SAP listed Qualtrics three years later and this 12 months notified shareholders of its plans to divest its majority stake. Silver Lake, which already owns greater than 4 per cent of Qualtrics shares, signalled curiosity in taking the enterprise non-public in January.
This month, it introduced a proper provide to purchase the corporate for $12.4bn, a 73 per cent premium to the group’s buying and selling worth earlier than SAP made its divestiture plans public.
Smith is the chair of Qualtrics and certainly one of its largest shareholders with a stake value greater than $200mn, in response to securities filings. He’s anticipated to have a significant fairness curiosity within the non-public firm. In 2020, Smith acquired the Nationwide Basketball Affiliation’s Utah Jazz for almost $1.7bn.
Silver Lake has been near Qualtrics for years and has made massive investments alongside Smith earlier than.
Egon Durban, co-chief government of Silver Lake, has acted as a director on the Qualtrics board since its spin-off from SAP was accomplished. Zig Serafin, Qualtrics’s present chief government, is predicted to stay within the function.
In 2021, the non-public fairness group led an funding in a property administration software program firm alongside Smith. Silver Lake has a protracted historical past of investing with entrepreneurs, working with Michael Dell to take his private laptop firm non-public in 2013.
“It is a landmark transaction for Silver Lake,” mentioned Durban, who additionally highlighted the agency’s plan to work with Smith and Qualtrics’ current management to develop the corporate utilizing heavy investments in areas equivalent to synthetic intelligence.
