Silverfleet Capital has agreed to sell Ipes, a provider of outsourced services to private equity in Europe, to Apex Group.
The transaction is expected to generate a 3.8 times return on investment and 30 percent internal rate of return for Silverfleet once complete.
The agreement is subject to regulatory approval.
After identifying the potential to build a leading specialised outsourced service provider to private equity in Europe, Silverfleet invested in Ipes in August 2013.
Silverfleet expected the trend of private equity funds to outsource administration activities to specialised providers to continue due to the increasing regulatory requirements such as the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive, the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, and the Common Reporting Standard.
Since then Ipes has achieved strong growth and has strengthened its pan-European footprint by more than doubling both number of clients and staff.
Mark Piasecki, partner at Silverfleet Capital with responsibility for the financial services sector, commented: “We are delighted with the development of Ipes over the last five years.”
He added: “I am pleased that we were able to assist management in successfully executing their organic growth plan of investing in innovative new service propositions, such as depositary, underpinned by significant investment into Ipes’ sector leading proprietary technology solutions of capital tracker and ID register.”
Chris Merry, CEO of Ipes, said: “I would like to thank Silverfleet for their support. With their help and expertise, we have successfully grown our client base and expanded Ipes’ capabilities through innovative, technology-led, new services to our clients.”
Expanding on this, he said: “This has resulted in consistently strong organic growth over the last five years and cements Ipes’ position as a leading provider of outsourced services to private equity in Europe.”
“We are excited about the next stage of Ipes’ journey and, coupled with Apex’s impressive track record and scale, will ensure our standards of client service are maintained going forward.”
