Potentia Capital still waiting on $900m payday from Micromine sale
Silence truly is deafening at Potentia Capital’s $900 million deal to sell its mining software business Micromine.
It’s been a year since the Sydney-headquartered private equity firm agreed to terms to sell Micromine to Nasdaq-listed Aspen Technology, and investors are still waiting for a payday.
Potentia Capital’s founders Andy Gray and Tim Reed at their Sydney office. Louise Kennerley
Sources said the sale still hadn’t settled, despite Potentia’s assurances in April that it was close to completion. The reason behind the hold up wasn’t known. The private equity firm did not respond to a request for comment from Street Talk.
Potentia acquired a controlling stake in Micromine in December 2018 after a process run by PwC. The business’s founding Tuder family stayed invested.
The company had 280 employees and 22 offices when Potentia announced its exit. Micromine’s software was being used at more than 2000 sites in 90 countries, after bulking up through bolt-on acquisitions during Potentia’s stay.
It was advised by JPMorgan and JWS, while Aspen Tech was advised by Goldman Sachs. It is the second recently stalled deal at Potentia. It walked away from its takeover bid for Tyro Payments in May, after eight months of back and forth with the board.
Potentia was founded in 2014 by Andy Gray. Ex-MYOB chief Tim Reed joined in 2020. Its first two exits, Ascender and CompliSpace, netted returns greater than 15 times and four times the money invested in the companies respectively, The Australian Financial Review previously reported.
Read more on afr.com
