Deal Brief Technology - HFMtalenindex

Deal Highlights

• IMAP Netherlands advised on the sale of HFMtalentindex, a leading player in the Dutch talent assessment and talent development market, to Assessio, a Swedish portfolio company of Main Capital. 
• Assessio and Main Capital have joined forces with HFMtalentindex in order to create a leading European player in the talent assessment and talent development market. Main Capital acquired Assessio in June 2019 and is executing a buy-and-build strategy, to further improve its product offering and strengthen its geographic  positioning. 
• Together, Assessio and HFMtalentindex become a leading Northwestern European company, able to offer an extensive range of services and solutions for both pre-hire and post-hire processes.
• HFMtalentindex is a leading provider of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions for talent assessment and is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, with branch offices in South Africa. 
• Assessio, a Swedish portfolio company of Main Capital, specializes in talent assessment solutions. 
• Main Capital is a strategic investor, that focuses exclusively on the software sector.

Market Outlook

• The global Human Capital Management Market is worth $17.7 billion and is expected to grow rapidly across the world. The forecasted Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of the market in Western Europe until 2022
  amounts to 9.2%, whereas the Dutch forecasted CAGR amounts to 11.1%.
• Growth in the market is primarily driven by the current trend relating to the fight for talent, as well as the emergence of new technologies.
• Still highly fragmented, the market has various attractive niches, which gives rise to strong M&A appetite.

Valuation Summary

• The transaction value has not been disclosed. However, transaction multiples in the Netherlands, as well as internationally, for SaaS driven software companies, are typically at the higher end of the EBITDA spectrum.

IMAP Approach

• IMAP Netherlands acted as sell-side advisor to the 3 HFMtalentindex shareholders.
• Significant value was added by IMAP Netherlands, who leveraged its experience and knowledge to create a compelling equity story for potential buyers and subsequently ran a competitive, yet fair, process.
• Negotiations and close contact with the interested parties ensured the best deal for the client, which contributed greatly to the successful closing of the deal.
• Through liaison with IMAP partner firms, an extensive overview of national and international potentially interested parties was obtained, resulting in concrete interest both domestically and abroad.
• IMAP Netherlands and its global partners have profound expertise and a very strong track record in the Software industry. In the last few years, IMAP Netherlands has closed multiple deals in the Software sector.

Client Comment 

CEO of HFMtalentindex:
“It was a pleasure to work with the IMAP team. They were really dedicated to achieving the best deal for us and they clearly knew how to do this. Their membership in an international network also helped and proved to be of real value-add during the process. The team was attentive, committed and made our lives easier by guiding us throughout the transaction.”