TMF sold for €1.75bn ending its London listing plans
TMF GROUP, the Dutch business outsourcer, has abandoned plans to float on the London Stock Exchange and move its headquarters to the UK, in favour of a €1.75bn (£1.55bn) offer by private equity firm CVC.
The firm announced it was planning a £1bn initial public offering (IPO) earlier this month in what it described as a “vote of confidence in the UK”. But it will now stay put in the Dutch city of Amsterdam.
It is understood that TMF’S private equity owner, DH, preferred the simplicity of selling the group to CVC and felt the value of the offer was too good to turn down.
“TMF Group has an exciting future ahead of it and the management team and employees of the company are looking forward to partnering with CVC in the next phase of its growth,” said Frederik van Tuyll, the firm’s chief executive.
The deal would allow TMF to “capitalise on significant future growth opportunities”, the company said.
The news is a blow to London’s burgeoning IPO market, which has had a strong 2017 so far, in contrast with last year’s drought.
By October of this year there had been $7.2bn (£5.5bn) of floats in London, compared with just $2.5bn over the same period last year.
“The underlying equity markets are possibly the most constructive that we have seen in 10 years,” Nicholas Hall, JP Morgan’s head of UK equity capital markets, told The Daily Telegraph earlier this month.
TMF provides compliance and administrative services to more than 15,000 clients, including Netflix, Volvo and Linkedin. DH acquired TMF in 2008. The transaction is expected to complete in the first half of next year, pending regulatory approval.
“TMF Group is an industry-leading business that has grown strongly in recent years by providing a unique suite of business-critical services to its clients,” said Ivo Lurvink, partner at CVC.
“The global business environment is dynamic and increasingly complex – TMF is extremely well placed to help its clients operate successfully and to the highest regulatory standards.”