Norvestor invests in the IT solutions and operations provider Pearl Group
A fund advised by Norvestor Advisory AS has signed an agreement to acquire the majority of the shares in Pearl Group (“Pearl” or “the Company”), a leading Nordic Customer Experience and Enterprise Resource Planning partner providing one-stop IT solutions and operations to Nordic corporations.
Pearl has established a leading position continuously winning market share in the fast-growing market for outsourced IT services, built on a differentiated lifecycle offering with clear customer value add as an end-to-end partner for development, operations and solutions management. Pearl’s offering is centered around ERP systems, typically represented among businesses’ top 3 most business-critical systems as well as being key to digitalization processes. By combining its SAP competence with business, operational and technical understanding, Pearl has built leading capabilities on customer-facing processes covering ERP, Commerce, CRM, logistics and cloud migration. Founded in 2006, Pearl serves close to 50 leading retail and e-commerce customers and has revenues of c. NOK 315 million. The Company has c. 170 full-time employees and is headquartered in Lysaker (Norway), supported by offices and operations in Sandefjord (Norway), Riga (Latvia), Stockholm (Sweden), Kyiv and Kharkiv (Ukraine) and Singapore.
“We are very excited about partnering with Norvestor as we believe they are a great match for Pearl. Norvestor has a strong track record of supporting founder teams with the scale-up of Nordic IT services businesses, we believe Norvestor is uniquely positioned to contribute to Pearl’s further value creation journey. Together we will grow Pearl both organically and through strategic M&A to increase geographical footprint, expand functionality and enter new industry niches”, says Geir Thoresen, CEO and co-owner of Pearl Group.
“Norvestor has been active in the market for business software for decades, and we are truly impressed by the strong market position and attractive business model that Pearl has built within key niches of the rapidly growing market for external IT services. The Company has a highly competent and driven management team and prosperous, customer-centric company culture creating a solid foundation for further growth. The Company fits very well with Norvestor’s experience in backing IT services businesses with ambitious growth plans to become Nordic champions. We are enthusiastic by the opportunity to support management in accelerating the growth of the Company”, says Henning Vold, Partner at Norvestor Advisory.
Following the acquisition, Norvestor will become the largest shareholder in Pearl Group with c. 52% of the shares. The current management team and key employees will reinvest the majority of their proceeds to hold the remaining shares. As part of the transaction. Pearl will also be provided with significant expansion capital to invest in further growth.
The transaction is expected to close end of January 2021, subject to customary closing conditions, including approval from the Norwegian Competition Authorities.
For further information:
Henning Vold, Partner at Norvestor Advisory
Telephone: +47 908 79 581
Email: henning.vold@norvestor.com
Geir Thoresen, CEO Pearl Group
Telephone: +47 976 71 574
Email: geir.thoresen@pearlgroup.no
Pearl Group delivers and operates ERP, Customer Relationship Management (“CRM”), marketing and e-commerce solutions for customers across several industries. The Company has specialised in SAP, one of the global market leaders in end-to-end enterprise application software, database analytics, intelligent technologies, and experience management, and the Company is currently a leading SAP partner in Norway. In 2012, Pearl introduced PearlCare customer lifecycle partner model, where Pearl takes complete responsibility for the needs and activities within operations and management of the solutions, i.e. everything that happens after implementation of new IT systems. Read more at www.pearlgroup.no
Norvestor is a leading private equity firm focusing on mid-market buyouts in the Nordic region with offices in Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki, and Luxembourg. The team has worked together since 1991 making it one of the most experienced private equity teams in the Nordics, having executed 73 investments with more than 250 follow-on M&A transactions, in addition to executing 51 exits including 15 IPOs. The Norvestor funds seek to invest in growth companies in the Nordic mid-market that have the potential to achieve a leading Nordic or international position, typically through organic growth, acquisitions across fragmented industries and by geographic expansion. Read more at www.norvestor.com