Deloitte Legal assists Main Capital Partners in building strong banking software group through acquisition of pdv and van den Berg

A Düsseldorf-based Deloitte Legal team led by Max Lüerßen (Counsel) and Felix Felleisen (Partner, both Corporate/M&A) advised Main Capital Partners ("Main") on its platform acquisition of pdv Financial Software GmbH and the subsequent acquisition of van den Berg GmbH and van den Berg Service AG.

In the future, the acquired companies will operate under the umbrella of pdv Holding GmbH, which was founded for this purpose and in which the management teams have reinvested. The collaboration of the two companies marks a milestone in Main's efforts to build a sizable group in the banking software market. Together with the management team, Main will support the group in its growth plans and with a selective buy-and-build strategy. The focus will be on further expanding the banking software platform around the core areas of trading, payments and complementary banking solutions with a focus on recurring revenues.

pdv Financial Software GmbH, headquartered in Hamburg, is a German market leader for capital markets software and provides end-to-end solutions for the entire trading process chain. The solution covers all major asset classes and financial instruments, both for buying and selling as well as for institutional and retail trading. Key reasons for Main's investment include pdv's cross-selling potential within the broader banking software group, its attractive financial profile with consistent double-digit growth and high profitability, and the strong customer base.

Headquartered in Herzogenrath, van den Berg Group, which consists of van den Berg GmbH and van den Berg Service AG, provides payments solutions to its customers, who currently number around 100, primarily in the banking sector. The company's product portfolio includes Payment Processing and Management (PPM), with the offering consisting in an all-encompassing solution for receiving, converting, verifying, correcting, matching and redirecting all payment transactions. In addition to this, van den Berg also offers further functions for SEPA Card Clearing for the processing of card payments as well as an Instant Payments Gateway. Established as a partner for banks for over 35 years and in use as a Payments-as-a-Service solution for 15 years, van den Berg has built strong relationships with its customers and has succeeded in building a long-standing and highly satisfied customer base.

The products and services of pdv and van den Berg are highly complementarity and offer significant potential for cross-selling and up-selling within the broader banking software group. The merger will further strengthen the already strong presence of both companies in the banking software market.

The team led by Düsseldorf-based Deloitte Legal lawyers Felix Felleisen and Max Lüerßen had advised Main Capital on a number of platform and add-on transactions since 2015; more recently, Deloitte Legal has also repeatedly acted for Main as sell-side advisors, for example in the sale of financial software provider b+m Group to German technology investor LEA Partners and the strategic sale of artegic to UNITED Marketing Technologies by DuMont.

Advisor Main Capital:

Deloitte Legal: Max Lüerßen (Counsel, Corporate/M&A, Düsseldorf, Lead), Felix Felleisen (Partner, Corporate/M&A, Düsseldorf, Co-Lead); Frauke Heudtlass (Partner, Employment Law, Düsseldorf), Niko Jakovou, LL.M. (Partner, Corporate/M&A, Düsseldorf), Felix Skala, LL.M. (Partner, Merger Control, Hamburg); Dr. Fleur Johanna Prop, LL.M. (Counsel, Corporate/M&A, Düsseldorf), Dr. Dietmar Althaus (Counsel, Commercial/IT, Cologne), Stefan Weste (Counsel, Employment Law, Berlin); Nicole Deneke, Nicole Rurik (Associates, Corporate/M&A, Düsseldorf), Leonie Onkelbach (Associate, Employment Law, Düsseldorf).

Deloitte Financial Advisory: Jan Verleysdonk (Partner), Mathias Keller (Partner), Sven Hausen (Director); Vilma Vranici (Manager), Janis Fabio Balthasar (Manager), Pauline Tubben (Consultant, all Deloitte Financial Advisory, Düsseldorf).