29 May 2018 – Visma Group and Raet have signed an agreement whereby Visma intends to acquire 100 percent of the shares of Raet.

The intended acquisition follows a competitive sales process, commenced earlier this year by the Hg7 Fund. The agreement is subject to the parties having completed the consultation procedures with both Raet’s Dutch works council and Visma’s Dutch works council, and the parties having informed the relevant Dutch trade unions of the intended transaction.

Raet and Visma Group combined will become one of Europe’s leading HR solutions providers, delivering software and services to more than 10 million end-users.

Raet is a highly strategic and complementary acquisition for Visma, strengthening its presence in the Netherlands and Belgium, where Visma already provides bookkeeping, ERP, payroll and related cloud software. In addition to Visma’s existing business in the Netherlands, the combined businesses will have over €200m revenues, 1,500 employees and increase the previous customer base across the two regions to 50,000.

The combination will also substantially expand Visma’s addressable market and allow it to provide Raet’s existing customers with access to Visma’s leading suite of cloud software applications, enabling them to benefit from joint innovation capacity and agility. This will help make the business more efficient as well as helping to further develop the organisation and people.

Øystein Moan, CEO of Visma, says: ‘’The highly skilled workforce of Visma and Raet together form a strong international HRM environment. This strengthens our ability to continue providing new and existing customers with long-term sustainable solutions. The acquisition leads to mutual added value and growth opportunities as Raet’s offering fits well with Visma’s HRM strategy’.”

Kobe Verdonck, CEO of Raet, says: ‘’Raet joining Visma increases our world-class HR innovation and offering which will provide new opportunities for both our customers and employees. By joining Visma, Raet further strengthens its position in the Dutch market.”

Justin von Simson, Managing Partner at Hg, said: “As investors with over 20-years’ deep knowledge of software, having invested or acquired over 200 software businesses across Europe, we are able to identify attractive opportunities for companies within our portfolio, such as Visma and Raet, which operate in similar industries. These can lead to significant benefits, such as shared knowledge, complementary capabilities and synergies. Visma submitted a compelling offer for Raet and, by working together, we can see that there are great advantages for both companies and their customers going forward.”

No details around the intended transaction will be disclosed. Completion of the transaction is expected in the summer of 2018.