Context
Founded in 1990, CAST provides software intelligence towards digital transformation. Through its worldwide presence (US, EMEA, India and APAC), the Group serves IT intensive enterprise and public institutions. It employs more than 300 people in Europe, USA, China and India with a turnover of approximately €44 million from over 500 customers. The Company has been listed in Euronext since 1999.
To support and accelerate its growth, CAST entered into exclusive negotiations with Bridgepoint Development Capital with respect to a potential majority investment. Following this investment, Vincent Delaroche, will continue to lead the company's activities as Chairman and CEO of CAST. Bridgepoint Development Capital intends to significantly accelerate the company's growth and reputation by initiating a new phase of its transformation plan, which includes a focus on the most promising use cases, such as migrating software systems to the cloud, building automated document repositories to give organisations greater control over their business applications, and controlling software risks relating to proprietary rights, operating rights, cybersecurity and quality.
Bridgepoint Development Capital has entered into exclusive negotiations to acquire a 65% stake in CAST from the company's major shareholders. Bridgepoint Development Capital has announced to the market its intention to launch a takeover bid on the remaining outstanding shares listed on Euronext, with the objective of completing a simplified delisting procedure. This investment is expected to be finalized early second half of 2022.
About CAST
CAST is the pioneer and market leader in Software Intelligence, providing insight into the structural state of software assets. CAST technology is recognised as the most accurate "MRI for software", providing actionable insights into software composition, architectures, database structures, critical flaws, quality levels, cloud readiness levels and work effort metrics. CAST's technology is used globally by thousands of forward-thinking digital leaders to make objective decisions, accelerate system modernization, and increase the security and resilience of critical software.
About Bridgepoint Development Capital
With a team of 35 investment professionals in Europe (including 12 in Paris), Bridgepoint Development Capital (BDC) is one of the few mid-cap investors able to support the international development of small and mid-sized companies, with nine investment offices and operational teams based in New York, San Francisco and Shanghai. BDC invests between €40m and €150m through its latest fund, BDC IV, which was raised in 2020 and has over €1.7bn under management. BDC's portfolio consists of eight companies: Sotralu (acquired in 2014), Anaveo (acquired in 2016), PrivateSportShop and Bee2Link (acquired in 2019), Cyrus and Sendinblue (acquired in 2020), PlugIn (acquired in 2021) and Cegos (acquired in 2022).
Bridgepoint Group plc is a listed international alternative asset manager focused on middle-market companies. With over €30bn of assets under management, the company has over 170 investment professionals covering six sectors (business services, consumer goods, financial services, healthcare, high tech and technology) in Europe, the US and China. Bridgepoint Development Capital invests with four distinct strategies: Mid-cap, Smid-cap, Growth and Credit.
Deal Team
Should you want to know more about this transaction, you can contact one of the team members above
Bryan, Garnier & Co acts as Sole Financial Advisor to Bridgepoint Development Capital on their contemplated investment in CAST
Bryan, Garnier & Co acts as Sole Financial Advisor to Bridgepoint Development Capital on their contemplated investment in CAST.
Bryan, Garnier & Co assisted Bridgepoint Development Capital throughout all the critical phases of the process including valuation, due diligences and negotiations of the transaction terms.
This marks another landmark transaction for Bryan, Garnier & Co’s software practice and is a further demonstration of its expertise in private equity-led transactions. Other notable transactions in the space over the last 6 months include the sale of Horizon Software to Sagard, the investment of Cathay Capital, Sagard & Eurazeo in Dilitrust, MBO & Co investment in Praxedo, Five Arrows Growth Capital investment in Padoa, the sale of Eudonet to Montagu and the sale of Sword GRC to TA Associates backed participation Riskconnect.
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