Visma sells the IT consulting business – Digi.no

The software company Visma sells its IT consulting business to the private equity and investment advisory company CVC Capital Partners.

The company, which has been part of the Visma Custom Solutions division, focuses on digital transformation and delivers business-critical IT solutions, consulting services and data-driven technologies. The company has 8,000 customers in the private and public sector, according to Visma.

With its focus on tailoring and custom software development, this company’s business model differs from the rest of the Visma Group, which is focused around SaaS (Software as a Service) and standardized products, the company writes in a news release.

A key reason for the transaction is that both Visma and the new company can achieve even stronger growth as two separate companies, they write. For Visma, the transaction means a pure cultivation of the core business within business-critical, cloud-based software for private and public customers in Europe.

Includes 450 employees in Norway

The company had a turnover of 280 million euros last year, and has around 2,000 employees in the Nordic countries and Lithuania. Of these, 450 are in Norway. Following the sale, Visma has a total of 2,550 employees in Norway, out of a total of 13,000 in the group.

According to communications manager Lage Bøhren in Visma, the sale does not affect the employees to a significant degree.

– Eventually there will be a new sign on the door, but otherwise it is “business as usual”. They get a new owner who has great faith in the business and offensive growth plans, he says to Digi.no.

– Will finance more acquisitions

The parties have agreed not to state the transaction price, says Lage Bøhren in Visma.

According to Dagens Næringsliv, sources with knowledge of the transaction have informed the newspaper that it is around 800 million euros, equivalent to around eight billion kroner.

According to the newspaper, Norske Visma has acquired more than 100 companies since the pandemic, and the sale of the IT consulting business is now releasing billions for new acquisitions, CEO Merete Hverven tells the newspaper.

According to the company, there was strong interest in the IT consulting business from several potential buyers in recent months, which led to a closed auction process with a selected group of stakeholders.

Establishes new company

CVC will take over a number of companies as part of the acquisition, and will, together with the management, build up a new brand name for the entire business, says Lage Bøhren in Visma. It has not yet been decided what the new company will be called.

The current divisional director for Custom Solutions, Carsten Boje Møller, will take over the role of managing director of the new company.

– This is a great opportunity for us to create a leading Nordic IT consulting company focus on digital transformation. I am very excited to have CVC on board, since they have a clear ambition to support our strategy and growth ambitions. These have been the most important criteria when choosing the right owner for our new company, and we look forward to working with them to accelerate our growth as an independent company, says Møller in the news release.

According to Visma, the new company’s projects span the entire life cycle for software and app development, and utilize expertise in GovTech, analytics, cyber security and cloud services. The company will have 30 offices throughout the Nordic region and in Lithuania, with headquarters in Copenhagen.

– We believe this is a good agreement for all parties, since the IT consulting business can develop even faster and better as an independent company. For Visma, this means an even sharper focus on our core business going forward, and additional funds to follow our ambitious growth strategy, says Merete Hverven, CEO of Visma, in the report.

According to Visma, CVC will support the new company’s existing management team and employees to grow and develop its market position through both organic growth and future acquisitions, under a new brand.