goetzpartners Corporate Finance advises on the sale of a majority stake in Sophis to private equity investor Advent International

Sophis, a leading provider of cross-asset, front-to-back portfolio and risk management solutions today announced the sale of a majority stake in the company to global private equity firm Advent International. The value of the transaction has not been disclosed.

Hervé Vinciguerra, Sophis’s founder and CEO, will retain a significant stake in Sophis and take a Supervisory Board position. In the interest of Sophis’s clients and employees, Mr Vinciguerra will work with the company’s new shareholders and managers to transition smoothly from his current executive position to his new non-executive role. The other main members of the senior management team and shareholders, Arnaud Vinciguerra and Nicolas Roussel, will reinvest as part of this transaction and keep their executive positions alongside the new CEO, Pascal Xatart. The current management team remains unchanged and is being offered the possibility to invest in Sophis, affirming its commitment to the new shareholder’s strategy.

Pascal Xatart joins Sophis after a successful career at Linedata Services, where he served as CFO in Paris and Managing Director of the Asset Management division in Boston. As CEO at Sophis, Pascal Xatart will focus on strengthening the firm’s leadership in Europe while also accelerating its international expansion, particularly in the US. The company will continue to invest significantly in R&D to maintain its current competitive advantages and respond to the specific needs of its clients. Hervé Vinciguerra, founder and CEO of Sophis, stated: “Over the past three years, Sophis has generated annual growth rates of over 40% with a double-digit profit margin; the company has
reached the 250 employee mark and generated revenues in excess of 48 million euros in 2006. The arrival of a financial partner for Sophis at a key moment in its history will allow the company to accelerate its international expansion, especially in North America, where sales and professional services teams will be significantly strengthened. In this context, we believe Advent to be the ideal partner, thanks to its international presence and experience as an investor in the financial technology industry, particularly in the US.”

Pascal Stefani, Partner of Advent International in France, said, “We are delighted to partner with Sophis, a leading company in its market which has seen rapid growth and consistently delivered one of the highest profit margins in the sector. We have been particularly impressed by the quality of Sophis's engineers and their ability to adapt quickly to market and client needs, which are essential components for long-term success in the financial software industry. This acquisition highlights one of Advent's key buyout strategies of driving international expansion in high-growth sub-sectors. As such, our French and American deal teams will play a significant role in supporting the international development of Sophis.”

goetzpartners Corporate Finance acted as sole financial advisor to Sophis on this transaction. “We are particularly proud to have contributed to the conclusion of a partnership that will accelerate the future growth of Sophis, thanks to the international experience of Advent”, explained Franck Portais, Managing Director of goetzpartners Corporate Finance France. “This is one of the largest transactions of the past three years in the European software industry”.