Houlihan Lokey Advises Illion

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that Illion and Archer Capital (Archer) have received a $260 million structured investment from Macquarie.

Illion, formerly known as Dun & Bradstreet ANZ, is a leading data registry operator and analytics solutions provider across Australia and New Zealand. Illion’s solutions uniquely span the entire customer lifecycle—from customer insights and lead generation to customer assessment, onboarding, and ongoing customer management. Illion is headquartered in Melbourne with customers in more than 20 countries worldwide and approximately 800 staff. It is a portfolio company of Archer Capital, one of Australia’s leading private equity firms.

In May 2019, Houlihan Lokey was engaged by Archer Capital as lead financial advisor to conduct a strategic review for illion, having assisted the company with its initial investment in Dun & Bradstreet ANZ in 2015. The initial phase of the review was an extensive international roadshow to meet with strategic and financial parties and share the illion story. Strong feedback from a number of potential investors during the roadshow led Archer to commence a trade sale process in September 2019 to explore interest in illion.

Houlihan Lokey maintained a well-paced, competitive process that drew significant interest from both local and international bidders. This was driven by close collaboration between Houlihan Lokey’s Sydney office and London-based Data & Analytics teams, which worked to deliver seamless execution. Six bidders were shortlisted for the final phase of due diligence. However, the advent of COVID-19 and associated business disruption prompted Archer to pause the sale.

Illion, advised by Houlihan Lokey, then pivoted to pursue and execute a dividend recapitalization with Macquarie Capital via a $260 million structured investment. This bespoke solution enabled Archer to de-risk its original investment while allowing for future upside to be realized via a sale once business and economic conditions recovered.

Houlihan Lokey acted as the exclusive financial advisor to illion and assisted in initiating, structuring, and negotiating the transaction on its behalf. This transaction further enhances the firm’s extensive track record in the financial and insurance sector.