EQT's Billtrust acquisition is latest in a hot year for financial software take-private deals

Swedish private equity firm EQT's deal to acquire Billtrust, a payments software provider, is the latest in a string of take-private transactions in the financial software sector, where falling valuations have created opportunities for private buyers.

Including the Billtrust deal, there have been eight take-private buyouts involving financial software companies worth a total of $26.92 billion so far this year—the highest annual deal value since 2007, when PE firms inked two take-privates totaling $29 billion, according to PitchBook data. This year's total deal count is well ahead of last year and breaks the record set in 2019.

Buyout firms this year have been on a take-private dealmaking tear as they seek to take advantage of the decline in valuations of publicly traded companies, according to PitchBook's Q2 2022 US PE Breakdown. Many public companies are trading at a discount of 50% or more from their 52-week highs.

The largest take-private deal in the financial software industry so far this year is Thoma Bravo's $10.4 billion buyout of Anaplan, a San Francisco-based company that provides business planning software to companies such as Coca-Cola and Shell. In another high-profile deal, a Vista Equity Partners-led investment group has agreed to buy Avalara, a tax compliance software company, in an $8.4 billion all-cash transaction.
   
BofA Merrill Lynch analyst Jason Kupferberg wrote in a research note that it is "relatively unlikely" there will be other bidders, given the size of the acquisition premium. EQT's offer is priced at eight times Billtrust's fiscal 2023 estimated net revenue of $207.2 million, Kupferberg wrote.

Billtrust is the developer of a payment management platform to automate the invoice-to-cash process.

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This article originally appeared on PitchBook News