18.01.23
Sovereign announces the sale of Alveo to funds managed by Symphony Technology Group
Sovereign Capital Partners, the UK private equity Buy & Build specialist, is pleased to announce the realisation of its investment in Alveo – a leading global provider of financial data management software to financial institutions – to funds managed by Symphony Technology Group (STG), with debt funding provided by Five Arrows. The exit, following four years of Sovereign’s partnership with Alveo, marks the seventh exit from its £395m fund SCLP IV.
Sovereign originally backed the MBO of Alveo (formerly Asset Control) in September 2018, led by CEO Mark Hepsworth. The company was founded over 20 years ago and was one of the early entrants into third-party Enterprise Data Management and, with Sovereign’s support, has grown to further develop as a market leader in market and reference data management, servicing a blue-chip set of financial institutions globally.
Headquartered in London, with operations in the Netherlands, USA and Singapore, Alveo supports mission-critical operations for clients on the buy- and sell-side. With average client relationships exceeding 10 years, the company continues to deliver a high proportion of recurring/reoccurring revenues.
As part of the growth story, Sovereign has worked with Alveo to enhance the management team with the appointments of a non-executive Chair, a CFO and a CTO to help oversee the transformation to a cloud-based data management platform.
Sovereign would like to thank our advisers on the transaction: Houlihan Lokey (Lead Financial Adviser), Pinsent Masons (Legal), Alvarez & Marsal (Finance & Tax DD), Oliver Wyman (Commercial DD), Endava (Technology DD) and Mack Communications (Investor Communications).
Sovereign has been a highly supportive investor financially and strategically. Together we have been able to deliver on a shared vision for the Group. Our partnership unlocked significant investment to reposition and accelerate the growth of the business, culminating in its rebrand to Alveo in December 2020. In particular, we have focused on moving Alveo natively to the cloud, rolling out a range of new managed services and improving business user productivity across financial institutions. Going forward, we are delighted to be partnering with STG to deliver on the next phase of our strategy and continuing to focus on further enhancing our products and services to our customers. STG have strong experience in this segment and I think this is a great opportunity to enable us to continue to develop Alveo.
Mark Hepsworth, CEO of Alveo
Alongside an excellent management team we are delighted to have delivered on our strategy to re-position the business to a cloud-native, ARR-focused provider with a relentless focus on the business user. This is a great springboard for the company to pursue the next phase of its development against the backdrop of a fast-growing and highly dynamic market. With new client wins, including a first Data as a Service (DaaS) client this year, industry recognition across multiple awards and a strong new business pipeline both in the US and EMEA, we wish Mark and the team every success under its new owner.
Alex Hay, Partner, Sovereign Capital Partners
We are proud to have had the opportunity to work with a great management team to develop Alveo further as a genuine market leader. This exit once again demonstrates a successful delivery of the Sovereign Capital playbook, securing another strong return for our investors and building on our track record in the Business & Tech services sector. We continue to see great opportunity to deploy capital through SCLP V in companies and sectors which mirror the resilience and transformation potential of companies like Alveo.
Dominic Dalli, Managing Partner, Sovereign Capital Partners
