Bain makes partial exit from Australia's MYOB

The private equity firm, which took MYOB public in May 2015, sold 100 million shares for an undisclosed sum, according to a filing. Based on the February 22 closing price of A$3.56, it would have generated proceeds of A$356 million ($274 million). The stock was down 9% at A$3.36 as of early afternoon trading on February 24, valuing Bain’s remaining holding at around A$797 million.

The sell down followed MYOB announcing another year of double-digit growth. Revenue for the 12 months ended December 2016 came to A$370.4 million, up 13% year-on-year, while EBITDA rose 12% to A$171.5 million and net profit climbed 13% to A$56.6 million.

Bain acquired MYOB from Archer Capital and HarbourVest Partners in 2011 for around A$1.3 billion, supported by A$530 million in senior debt plus a vendor note. The GP took money out of the business through a retail note issue in December 2013 and a debt refinancing in September 2014.

MYOB raised A$833.1 million in its IPO, which gave the company an implied enterprise valuation of A$2.59 billion. Bain did not sell any shares in the offering, although part of the proceeds were used to take out A$127.2 million in redeemable preference shares held by the private equity firm. Archer and HarbourVest also received a further A$292.5 million through the redemption of the vendor note.

MYOB provides business management software solutions to more than 1.2 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Australia and New Zealand. More than 63% of revenue comes from SME solutions, including accounting, payroll and tax, with 23% coming from practice software provided to 40,000 accountants, and 14% from enterprise solutions for 7,000 medium and large businesses.

As of year-end 2016, MYOB had 585,000 paying SME subscribers and 249,000 online subscribers. Since 2012, paying SME subscribers and online subscribers have increased by 182,000 and 216,000, respectively. Revenue has nearly doubled during this period, while EBITDA is up more than 50%.

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• Topics
• Australasia
• Open market
• Technology
• Australia
• Bain Capital Asia
• Exit