With the goal of creating a new enterprise software firm of critical magnitude, Axway executives have been outlining their medium-term strategic roadmap for the past few years, and this news signals that the acquisition will play a significant role in that roadmap.

Axway will keep evaluating the various strategic alternatives available to the business to guarantee its safe and effective growth and profitability plan. Axway will be able to capitalise on its recent performance and grow by adding new products to its portfolio as a result of acquiring the majority of Sopra Banking Software's operations.
 

The operation will involve the acquisition of the SBS activities by Axway for an enterprise value of EUR 330 million. The amount is anticipated to be examined by an impartial expert and is subject to confirmatory due diligence.

Additional details regarding the purchase

As a provider of banking and financial software, Sopra Banking Software is anticipated to gain from the size and general expertise of an international software organisation that has previously made the switch to a subscription-based business model. Since Axway and SBS were founded on separate entrepreneurial projects and have a shared set of objectives centred around secure and sustainable value creation for their stakeholders, they already share a significant portion of their experience and solutions.

Through this method, a variety of clients and customers can take advantage of their entire skill set and service portfolio, with both businesses concentrating on satisfying the requirements, tastes, and needs of consumers in a constantly changing market. If successful, the acquisition is anticipated to create a new enterprise software company with crucial scale that can satisfy the demands of banking applications and integration with optimal visibility and power.

In 2023, the SBS activities that are the subject of the operation brought in about EUR 340 million in revenue, or almost 80% of the total revenue of the subsidiary. An estimated EUR 650 million in revenue is expected from the deal. By doing this, Axway will be able to treble its present revenue while still adhering to industry regulations and legal obligations.

Additionally, Axway plans to finance the planned acquisition with new financing facilities for the remaining amount as well as a capital of EUR 130 million, which will be enhanced with preferential subscription rights. Axway was sent a consoling letter by Société Générale and Groupe Crédit Agricole for this. To the extent of its rights and those obtained from Sopra Steria Group, which account for 53% of the proposed capital increase, Sopra GMT plans to irreducibly subscribe to Axway's capital increase.

One Equity Partners, which is anticipated to become a minority stakeholder of the financial institutions, will handle the financial process of Sopra GMT undertakings. Additionally, extensive discussions leading to a legally binding agreement are now in progress.
 

Closing these activities at the end of Q2 2024 or in Q3 2024 is the goal.