PARIS: Groupe Meilleurtaux, Silver Lake and West Street Capital Partners have entered into exclusive negotiations under which Silver Lake would acquire a majority stake in Groupe Meilleurtaux from West Street Capital Partners VII.

Management would re-invest in Meilleurtaux alongside Silver Lake, a news release said.

Hervé Hatt and Guillaume Autier, Chairman and CEO of Groupe Meilleurtaux, said: “We are extremely proud of what Meilleurtaux has achieved over the past three years, with the group’s revenue doubling between 2017 and 2019. Together with our outstanding team, our franchisees, and our partners, we have built a highly successful business with a strong track record of increasing transparency and access to the French financial services ecosystem.

“As Meilleurtaux begins its new chapter of growth, we are thrilled to welcome Silver Lake, a world-class technology investor with deep financial services and online industry expertise as well as strong value-creation capabilities, as our new majority investor. This investment marks a pivotal step for our company, and we are excited to lead it through this journey.”

Christian Lucas, Co-Head of Silver Lake EMEA, said: “Meilleurtaux is an exceptional company with a unique value proposition across its ecosystem of customers, channel partners and financial providers. We are highly impressed by the way Hervé, Guillaume and the rest of the team have strengthened the business and built it into a multi-channel financial services powerhouse with some 90 million online and mobile visits per year across its various properties. Investing in high-growth, impactful and pioneering business models is at the core of Silver Lake’s DNA, and the privilege of partnering with this management team as Meilleurtaux enters a new phase of growth and value creation is firmly consistent with our mission.”

Michele Titi-Cappelli, Managing Director and Alexandre Flavier, Executive Director of Goldman Sachs, added: “Meilleurtaux is an outstanding platform that plays a pivotal role in democratizing transparency and consumer choice in the French financial services ecosystem. We couldn’t be more pleased with the success of Meilleurtaux under the leadership of Hervé, Guillaume and their team since 2017. We strongly believe that Meilleurtaux is still at the beginning of its growth journey.”

Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Paris, France, Groupe Meilleurtaux provides a broad and diversified range of financial services and products that started historically with mortgage loan comparison and brokerage. Its wide suite of high-quality solutions is seamlessly accessible to consumers through a comprehensive range of leading online and mobile tools including its flagship websites Meilleurtaux.com, Lecomparateurassurance.com and Meilleurplacement.com, as well as financial information website MoneyVox, which in aggregate attract an industry-leading number of approximately 90 million yearly visits.

Meilleurtaux.com’s award winning and web-native digital solutions comprise a set of innovative, client-centric toolkits including intuitive financial simulators, calculators and barometers focused solely on helping households save money across their most important financial life decisions on a daily basis. The Company’s unique multi-channel offering is enabled by France’s largest network of 340 brokerage branches, offering customers an unmatched service level in partnership with an industry leading network of more than 300 established bank and insurance providers that together have shaped Meilleurtaux’s trusted brand for over two decades.

Silver Lake is planning to invest heavily in Groupe Meilleurtaux’s product range and partnership network to help further accelerate the Company’s strong organic and inorganic revenue growth across its core business of mortgage and loan insurance brokerage, as well as to further expand its leading offering across the financial services ecosystem. Silver Lake will thereby preserve Groupe Meilleurtaux’s winning operating model while leveraging its capabilities to support management in strengthening it further.

The proposed transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter and is subject to regulatory approvals and works council information and consultation procedures.

Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Paris, France, Groupe Meilleurtaux is a leading French financial services provider with a broad and diversified range of financial services including loan insurance and mortgage brokerage, debt consolidation solutions, savings & investment products as well as P&C and health insurance distribution and brokerage offerings, available both online and through France’s largest network of 340 brokerage branches.

Silver Lake is a global technology investment firm, with over $40 billion in combined assets under management and committed capital and a team of approximately 100 investment and operating professionals located in Silicon Valley, New York, London and Hong Kong. Silver Lake’s portfolio of investments collectively generates more than $230 billion of revenue annually and employs 370,000 people globally.

Founded in 1869, The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is a leading global investment banking, securities and investment management firm. Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division (MBD) is the primary center for the firm’s long-term principal investing activity. MBD is one of the leading private capital investors in the world with investments across private equity, infrastructure, private debt, growth equity and real estate.