Houlihan Lokey Advises Great Hill Partners
Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that Great Hill Partners (GHP) has successfully secured a financing package to support its acquisition of SME HCI Ltd. (Vivup), a leading provider of world-class health and wellbeing benefits, and Perkbox Ltd. (Perkbox), a global benefits and reward platform. Vivup and Perkbox (together with GHP) have agreed to merge, bringing together their combined strengths with the goal of offering a truly market-leading solution for the U.K.’s public and private employee benefits sectors. Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive financing advisor on this transaction.
Since 2005, Vivup has been providing world-class health and wellbeing benefits to employees across the public and private sectors while arming employers with the tools to cultivate resilient workforces, retain great staff, and win the war on talent. Vivup partners with almost 4,000 clients and supports more than 3.3 million employees throughout the U.K. Vivup was awarded U.K. Employer of the Year at the Investors in People Awards in 2022 and won Best Supplier to Work For at the Employee Benefits Awards in 2023. Simon Moyle, CEO, was awarded U.K. Leader of the Year at the Investor in People Awards in 2022 and won Scale-Up Entrepreneur of the Year (North East) at the Great British Entrepreneur Awards in 2023. Vivup has also just been awarded EB100 SME Businesses No.1 by Elite Business.
Perkbox is a global benefits and rewards platform that allows companies to care for, connect with, and celebrate their employees. With more than 10 years of experience, Perkbox is trusted by thousands of companies with users across the globe. Perkbox services approximately 3,500 clients comprising more than 600,000 employees from its two offices in the U.K. and Australia. Its location-agnostic, globally available platform helps companies with diverse and dispersed workforces harmonise their employee value proposition.
The combination of Vivup and Perkbox creates a leading player in the employee benefits space supporting more than 4 million employees across almost 7,500 organisations, including over 85% of the U.K.’s National Health Service, helping improve the lives of its people via leading employee wellbeing, benefits, engagement, and recognition and reward solutions. This newly integrated proposition of world-class products brings significant growth prospects and a broad, complementary product portfolio that will be instrumental in supporting more organisations and their employees across Europe and APAC.
Founded in 1998, GHP is a private equity firm targeting investments of $100 million to $500 million in high-growth companies across the software, digital commerce, financial technology, healthcare, and digital infrastructure sectors. With offices in Boston and London, GHP has raised more than $12 billion of commitments and invested in nearly 100 companies, establishing an extensive track record of building long-term partnerships with entrepreneurs and providing flexible resources to help middle-market companies scale. GHP has been recognised for its industry leadership, being ranked in the top of five HEC Paris—Dow Jones’ Mid-Market Buyout Performance Ranking lists from 2021–2023.
Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive financing advisor to arrange, structure, and negotiate the debt raise for GHP.
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