HgCapital has announced today its acquisition of Visma BPO (Business Process Outsourcing), a leading provider of outsourced accounting services. Based in Oslo, Norway, the newly acquired company will sit within HgCapital’s Services sector. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Visma BPO is currently owned by Visma, a Nordic accountancy software company which HgCapital owns alongside KKR, Cinven and the management team. The BPO business is being carved out and has been sold as part of an organised competitive sales process, following Visma’s strategic decision to focus increasingly on its Software as a Service (“SaaS”) offerings.

HgCapital has known Visma BPO for more than ten years, and this investment is in line with HgCapital’s proven, sector-focused approach of investing in leading regulatory-driven businesses in and around the accounting and tax compliance space. The Company demonstrates many of the business model characteristics that HgCapital looks for, including: a high proportion of repeatable revenues; high customer loyalty; a fragmented customer base; and the opportunity to improve margins.

HgCapital’s Services team has specific experience in successfully growing financial services BPOs, including Radius (USA, acquired in 2013) and ATC (Netherlands, acquired in 2011, sold in 2013).

Thorsten Toepfer, HgCapital said: “We believe that this transaction will lead to significant advantages to both parties going forward. Visma will continue its focus as a provider of complete SaaS solutions in the Nordics. HgCapital’s proven sector experience has been pivotal in implementing this deal and we are pleased we can continue to develop Visma BPO as a Norwegian-based industry leader in Northern Europe.”

Øystein Moan, CEO Visma AS commented: “We believe BPO can develop faster and better independently of Visma and we wish BPO every success in its next phase of growth.”