HgCapital, the European sector-focused private equity investor, has acquired 91.85% of P&I Personal & Informatik AG (“P&I”), a leading payroll and transaction HR software provider, from The Carlyle Group.

Headquartered in Wiesbaden, Germany, P&I is a leader for payroll and HR-related software to mid-market companies and the public sector in Germany and the surrounding region. The company serves almost 4,000 direct and 15,000 indirect customers and generated revenue of €82 million in FY 2013. The business offers software for the management of payroll, workforce, time management and human capital management. It typically services SMEs with 200 – 5,000 employees across industries as well as medium-sized and large public sector customers. It employs a staff of almost 400 with offices in Austria, Switzerland, Slovakia and the Netherlands and has partners in nine additional European countries.

P&I is HgCapital’s first investment in its HgCapital 7 fund which closed at its £2 billion hard cap in April this year. The acquisition also marks the company’s third investment in the software sector in 2013 following investments in e-conomic, one of Europe’s leading Software as a Service (“SaaS”) accounting companies for SMEs, and Intelliflo Limited, one of the leading SaaS providers of front and back office software to Financial Advisors, Advisor Networks and Brokers.

P&I displays specific characteristics that HgCapital looks for in its portfolio companies: a scalable business model with a broad diversified customer base and a significant share of recurring revenues driven by on-going regulatory changes. HgCapital continues to see attractive long-term growth opportunities in the European payroll and transactional HR sector for leading, innovative players and will support P&I’s continued development of its new product offering around Cloud, Big Data and Mobile and continuous operational improvements.

The acquisition of P&I further strengthens HgCapital’s position as a leading investor in the European software sector, having completed ten prior investments in the regulatory-driven software space since the firm’s inception in 2000.

Commenting on the acquisition Kai Romberg, Partner at HgCapital, said:

“We have been following the progress of P&I for over 10 years and have built a strong relationship with the outstanding management team in that time. We are delighted to have been selected as their preferred partner to take the business on to its next phase of expansion. We look forward to working with the management team lead by Vasilios Triadis as they continue to grow the business.”

Nic Humphries, Managing Partner at HgCapital, added:

“P&I is the maiden investment of HgCapital’s £2 billion HgCapital 7 fund. HgCapital has a proven track record in the European software sector of supporting management teams to grow industry champions and P&I is a valuable addition to our select group of investments in the sector.”

Vasilios Triadis, CEO of P&I, said:

“Having been in contact with the team at HgCapital for many years, I am very happy to have the support of an investor who is familiar with the business, an expert in the industry and dedicated to developing P&I’s leading market position.”