Houlihan Lokey Advises OCI

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that OCI has received a minority partnership investment from Chequers Capital. The deal was signed on 14 March 2022 and closed on 18 March. The transaction value is undisclosed.

OCI is the fastest-growing, one-stop-shop IT services provider for SMEs in France, reaching €150 million in revenue in 2021, from €61 million in 2018, gaining a significant scale advantage in a very fragmented market.

The group provides a seamless SMAC (social, mobile, analytics, and cloud space) offering and is best positioned to benefit from the accelerating digitalisation of SMEs having extensive coverage in France through 20 offices and 750 employees.

The offering includes managed and cloud infrastructure services, network, cybersecurity, and business process management software, as well as digital marketing services. The group has a distinctive commercial savoir-faire, based on proprietary methodologies of process standardisation, and serves a diversified and sticky client base of over 10,000 across multiple end markets.

OCI’s management team has an outstanding track record in sourcing, executing, and integrating tuck-in acquisitions and completed five build-ups over the past three years, transforming the group into a scalable platform for growth.

Founded in Paris in 1972 as a subsidiary of the Charterhouse Group, Chequers Capital is a historic player in private equity, with more than $2 billion under management and 300 investments across Europe (France, Germany, Italy, Benelux, Switzerland, and Spain).

Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive financial advisor to OCI and its shareholders. The deal team assisted in initiating, structuring, and negotiating all financial aspects of the transaction on the company’s behalf. This deal represents another successful transaction for Houlihan Lokey in the IT services space.