CVC Capital Partners is in advanced talks about a deal to take CompuGroup Medical SE & Co KGaA, a German software provider to the healthcare sector, private.
Koblenz-based CompuGroup is discussing a potential offer from CVC of 22 euros a share, it said on Sunday (Dec 8). Bloomberg News reported earlier that CVC was exploring a deal for CompuGroup.
Under the terms being discussed, the shareholder group around CompuGroup’s founding Gotthardt family would retain its roughly 50.1 per cent interest in the company, according to the statement.
CompuGroup has a current market value of 878.6 million euros (S$1.2 billion) after the shares tumbled more than 50 per cent this year, hurt by a deteriorating profit outlook. The stock closed at 16.35 euros in Frankfurt on Friday.
Frank Gotthardt, a computer science student, created CompuGroup in 1987 and listed it in 2007. He and his dentist wife, Brigitte Gotthardt, and their doctor son, Daniel Gotthardt, as well as Reinhard Koop own a majority.
CVC has been ramping up dealmaking after raising 26 billion euros last year for the world’s biggest-ever buyout fund – a sharp contrast to peers that had to delay fundraisings or adjust expectations. The firm, which listed in April of this year in Amsterdam, deployed 13.4 billion euros in the January to June period, it said in its first set of financial results since the initial public offering.
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CompuGroup in July issued a profit warning, forecasting flat or declining organic revenue as well as a drop in operating profit amid challenges for its units serving doctors and hospitals. The firm named Daniel Gotthardt chief executive officer in July after mutually agreeing to the early termination of CEO Michael Rauch’s contract.
The company provides Ambulatory Information Systems, or software for doctors’ offices of all fields and sizes, as well as IT for hospitals and pharmacies. CompuGroup had annual revenue of about 1.2 billion euros in 2023 with products in 60 countries and more than 8,700 employees in 19 countries, according to a fact sheet.
Analysts at Hauck & Aufhaeuser this month started coverage of CompuGroup with a sell rating, saying the software company is “structurally losing its edge” in its biggest division AIS, which has been ceding market share in its core Germany market for over 10 years.
Frank Gotthardt is a vintage cars fan and backer of ice hockey club, the Koelner Haie, or Cologne Sharks, according to the company’s website. BLOOMBERG
