”DOCU has shown strong growth and increasing profitability during recent years. Segulah has been a great support during this period, enabling the business to expand its offering of information services in existing and new markets”, says Stefan Lindqvist, CEO, DOCU.
DOCU is the market leading provider of information services to the Nordic construction industry, also serving the Nordic property and healthcare sectors. The company provides clients with data and market intelligence services, which are critical for its clients to identify and generate sales leads. DOCU operates in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland. In 2016, DOCU reported sales of MSEK 513.
Opportunity
The investment rationale was fourfold: (i) grow within the existing customer base through structured price increases and introduction of new services, (ii) grow the existing product offering in Norway, Finland and Denmark, (iii) reduce churn, and (iv) undertake add-on acquisitions.
What did Segulah provide?
Shortly after Segulah acquired DOCU as a carve-out from DOCU Group in the fall of 2014, the company acquired the majority (50.1%) of its main competitor in Denmark, CRM-Byggefakta. CRM was merged with DOCU’s Danish subsidiary Bygge Information A/S, which resulted in significant cost synergies. Moreover, management has with the support of Segulah, also successfully completed seven additional add-on acquisitions.
At the same time, management has successfully improved the operational quality of DOCU’s offering by reducing churn, actively managing subscription prices and increasing sales efforts on larger accounts. These activities have all contributed to strengthen the operations of the company and have contributed both to significantly increasing sales and profitability.
In November 2016, DOCU completed a refinancing, that replaced the original acquisition debt with a new less expensive facility that enabled a distribution of funds to S IV and other investors. In addition, the new facility financed the purchase of the remaining shares in the Danish subsidiary CRM corresponding 49.9% of equity.
The result
On August 2, 2017, DOCU was divested to Stirling Square Capital Partners, a London based mid-market financial sponsor, for an undisclosed amount. The returns from the transaction to investors in Segulah IV were well above expectations.
During Segulah’s three year ownership, DOCU experienced strong growth in sales, both through M&A and organically. This has been achieved by increasing customer penetration and expanding the company’s offering of information services into new verticals and markets. By gaining scale, and through focused price and cost optimization efforts, profitability has improved significantly. Between 2014 and the expected results of 2017 DOCU’s pro forma EBITDA margin increased from 19% to 30%.