LONDON, UK: Partners Group, investment manager of Princess Private Equity Holding, is selling Civica, a global provider of cloud software solutions for the public sector, to Blackstone.

Headquartered in the UK, Civica provides cloud software solutions to over 6,000 organisations across seven countries that deliver critical services to citizens.

Civica’s solutions are designed to help public bodies, including local councils, government departments, health and social care providers, and schools, operate more effectively through automating and streamlining services.

The company has a comprehensive product portfolio covering workflow and automation, risk and compliance, workforce management, financial management, and data analytics and insights.

Given Civica’s role in supporting the delivery of critical services, the company maintains high customer retention rates and benefits from strong recurring revenues.

Civica is well-positioned to continue capitalising on broad growth trends within the software market as organisations look to further digitise to provide better services and save money.

Partners Group acquired Civica in 2017 and has since transformed the company into a pure software business, pivoting away from its previous services such as IT management.

This has driven Civica’s strong growth, with EBITDA doubling since Partners Group’s investment. During Partners Group’s ownership, Civica has accelerated organic top line growth, developed a cloud offering, built out its offshore R&D operations, and executed 24 highly complementary add-on acquisitions.

Together with the management team, Partners Group has also defined overarching functional priorities that will guide Civica’s next phase of growth.

Civica CEO, Lee Perkins said: “At Civica, our aspiration is to become a global ‘GovTech’ champion, providing software that supports the needs of citizens and those that serve them.

In partnership with Partners Group, we have significantly transformed our offering and increased growth momentum across cloud, digital enablement, software innovation, and data analytics.

We have also cemented our position as an innovation leader. We now have over two decades of growth to build on and look forward to the next phase of our journey.”

Jonathan Murphy, Managing Director at Blackstone and Miguel García Gómez, Principal at Blackstone said: “Civica is a leader in the ‘GovTech’ space, with an excellent brand and an enviable market position and we are excited to be partnering with a stellar management team to help the business in this next phase of growth.

This investment is a testament to our long-standing software experience, a significant focus area for the firm globally, and builds on our strong track record of investing here in the UK”. 

Charles Rees, Member of Management, Private Equity Technology Industry Vertical, Partners Group, adds: “The thematic trends that underpinned our original investment in Civica remain strong.

Civica’s mission-critical and deeply specialized solutions, which are key in the public sector space where a high level of customer intimacy is required, continue to differentiate the Company from its competitors. Civica’s growing international presence should also provide future growth channels. We wish the management team all the best.”