Australia's Infomedia entertains three buyout offers
Australia-listed automotive software supplier Infomedia has received its third buyout offer in the past two months, with PE-backed counterpart Solera proposing to acquire the business at a valuation of AUD 638.8m (USD 445m).
Solera, which is owned by US-based Vista Equity Partners, is looking to buy 100% of Infomedia for AUD 1.70 per share. The bid remains subject to various conditions, including due diligence, board approval, financing arraignments, and foreign investment approval.
It follows Battery Ventures offering to acquire the company for AUD 1.75 per share in late May. Earlier that month, a TA Associates-led consortium also submitted a bid of AUD 1.70 per share, extending significant momentum for PE take-privates in Australia of late.
Shares in Infomedia climbed 9% following the latest offer and last closed on AUD 1.60, representing a market capitalisation of AUD 601.2m. This compares to a market capitalisation of around AUD 447m immediately prior to the TA bid.
Infomedia said in a filing that it would grant due diligence access to all three bidders with consistent terms around confidentiality. It added that it would continue to consider further proposals and that discussions with other interested parties were indeed ongoing.
Founded in 1987, Infomedia specialises in aftersales technology such as data analytics, quoting services, and related e-commerce functions for the global automotive and lubricant market. It operates a parts selling platform for dealerships and other commercial users, as well as online services related to appointment bookings, repairs, inspections, and predictive marketing.
Last year, the company acquired SimplePart, which is active in B2B and B2C aftersales e-commerce and marketing for carmakers and dealers. Infomedia generated AUD 97.5m in revenue for the 12 months ended June 2021, up from AUD 94.6m the previous year. EBITDA rose from AUD 46m to AUD 47.6m, while net profit fell from AUD 18.6m to AUD 15.9m.
Enterprise software-focused Vista has made more than USD 255bn of private equity investments in some 80 companies since its inception in 2000 and currently claims about USD 93bn in assets under management.
Recent activity in Australia includes an investment in property management platform StarRez and the bolt-on acquisition of skills development platform A Cloud Guru by portfolio company Pluralsight.
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