Partner Article

Manchester based Clearwater International advises on software company’s division sale

Manchester-based advisory firm Clearwater International has advised Business Collaborator, a division of software company UNIT4, on its sale to private equity house YFM Equity Partners.

Business Collaborator is a provider of document and project management tools for the construction and asset maintenance industries.

The investment from YFM will see Business Collaborator leave UNIT4.

Business Collaborator will retain a close relationship with UNIT4 who have agreed to resell Business Collaborator’s BIM solutions for an exclusive period of up to three years.

Private equity house YFM has 30 years’ experience of investing and transforming fast-growing businesses.

The Leeds-based firm has previous experience in the technology sector.

The funding will enable Business Collaborator to continue to expand its offering of Collaboration and BIM software tools and accelerate its go to market strategy.

With 54 % of construction professionals in 2014 using BIM systems, compared to 13 % in 2011, the deal also offers Business Collaborator the potential to capitalise on this growing market.

As part of the deal, Richard Beaton will join the board as Chairman.

Clearwater International has strong experience in construction software sector, having advised CSC World in 4 transactions including an exit to US giant Trimble in 2013, Eque2 in no less than 7 separate deals in the vertical over a 7 year period, and Danish BIM player Byggeweb on its 2014 sale to RIB Software AG.

The Clearwater International team was led by Head of TMT Carl Houghton and Associate Director Andy Dyer.

Partner at Clearwater International, Carl Houghton, said: “Whilst it has taken some time to mature, we are very bullish about the growth of quality BIM assets and we are delighted to help the team to carve out Business Collaborator from its corporate parent.

“We have seen a number of BIM related software businesses go for strong valuations recently and private equity interest in the sector is at an all time high.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sophia Taha .