bpv Huegel advised Raiffeisen Informatik on the IPO of SoftwareONE with listing on the SIX Swiss Exchange

22 November 2019. bpv Huegel advised Raiffeisen Informatik as shareholder in connection with the initial public offering of SoftwareONE Holding AG and listing on the SIX Swiss Exchange.

The offered shares were priced at CHF 18 per share, implying a total market capitalization of approx. CHF 2.9 billion. The offering consisted of 38,549,464 existing shares, corresponding to approx. 24.3% of the total share capital, with an over-allotment option of up to 5,782,419 existing shares. The shares have been offered by SoftwareONE’s existing shareholders, including the founding shareholders, KKR and Raiffeisen Informatik. The trading of the shares on the SIX Swiss Exchange (SIX:SWON) started on October 25, 2019.

Credit Suisse, J.P. Morgan and UBS Investment Bank acted as Joint Global Coordinators and Joint Bookrunners, and BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, UniCredit and Zürcher Kantonalbank as Joint Bookrunners, and Rothschild & Co as financial advisor of SoftwareONE.

Headquartered in Switzerland, SoftwareONE is a leading global provider of end-to-end software and cloud technology solutions. With around 5,300 employees and sales and services delivery capabilities in 90 countries, SoftwareONE provides around 65,000 business customers with software and cloud solutions from over 7,500 publishers. In 2018/2019 SoftwareONE acquired the global operating COMPAREX Group from Raiffeisen Informatik. bpv Huegel already advised Raiffeisen Informatik on this sale. The SoftwareONE stake acquired by Raiffeisen Informatik as part of the consideration has now been partially sold in the course of the IPO.

The bpv Huegel team advising Raiffeisen Informatik was led by the partners Thomas Lettau (Corporate/M&A) and Christoph Nauer (Capital Markets, Corporate/M&A) working with tax partner Gerald Schachner and attorneys at law Verena Hügel (Corporate/M&A), Holger Steinborn (Corporate/M&A), Roland Juill (Capital Markets, Corporate/M&A) and associate Tamara Tomic (Corporate/M&A).

Raiffeisen Informatik was advised on Swiss law by Meyerlustenberger Lachenal (Partner Alexander Vogel, Corporate/M&A, Capital Markets).

Lenz & Staehelin, Zurich, and Linklaters, Frankfurt, advised SoftwareONE as issuer counsels. Niederer Kraft Frey, Zurich, and Freshfields, London, advised the bank syndicate.

Deal-Report

Foto (from left):
Thomas Lettau (Corporate/M&A) and Christoph Nauer (Capital Markets, Corporate/M&A)