Sage joins MYOB auction

Archer and HarbourVest hope to sell MYOB for more than A$1 billion ($1.05 billion), and have hired UBS AG to advise on the sale. The auction process comes three years after the private equity firms purchased MYOB for approximately A$450 million (then $296 million).

News of Sage's involvement comes one day after reports that Bain and KKR had submitted final bids for the company.

Melbourne-based MYOB claims EBITDA of approximately $100 million. Its products and services are said to be used by more than one million small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and accounting firms in Australia and New Zealand. If Sage acquires the asset via a trade sale, it would mark the company's largest purchase to date.

Sage claims 6.3 million customers worldwide and 2010 fiscal year revenue of GBP1.4 billion ($2.3 billion), and EBITDA of GPB366 million. According to the firm's website, Sage has had a major presence in Asia Pacific since 2006, when it acquired UBS Corporation in Malaysia and Singapore.

The majority of its acquisitions have been brokered in Europe and North America, but a MYOB purchase is said to be in line with Sage's ambitions to broaden its global footprint.

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• Topics
• Australasia
• Technology
• Archer Capital
• HarbourVest Partners
• Bain Capital Asia
• KKR