By Svea Herbst-Bayliss
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Software company Enfusion Inc is attracting takeover interest from private equity firms and strategic buyers, several people familiar with the matter said.
Enfusion’s management has been approached in recent months by Francisco Partners, Vista Equity Partners and investment firm Irenic Capital Management, said the sources who asked not to be identified because the talks are private.
Enfusion, which provides cloud-based portfolio management and risk systems to investment funds, is currently valued at roughly $1 billion. Since going public in 2021, Enfusion’s shares have lost more than half of their value. On Monday, they traded at $9.18 and they have lost 16% this year.
The company has experienced turbulence in the executive ranks, with its chief executive officer and chief financial officer resigning just months apart from one another last year.
Most recently, Irenic has held multiple meetings with new chief executive Oleg Movchan about a proposed transaction at a premium to the current share price, two sources said.
Representatives for Francisco, Vista and Irenic did not respond to requests for comment and a representative for Enfusion was not immediately available for comment.
There is no certainty that a deal will occur.
Irenic , which launched a little over a year ago, may work with a private equity firm that has expertise in software companies to pursue the purchase, one of the sources said. The name of the private equity partner could not be learned.
Irenic, which was co-founded by Elliott Management veteran Adam Katz and former Indaba Capital partner Andy Dodge, recently worked with private equity giant Apollo Global Management to buy industrial parts manufacturer Arconic.
Katz and Dodge met as college students at Harvard where Katz went on to earn business and law degrees before moving to Elliott where he worked on the proxy battle that the hedge fund waged at Arconic.
While deal activity has slowed this year, software companies focused on financial services have continued to attract attention from potential buyers.
Earlier this month, Nasdaq acquired Adenza for $10.5 billion and, in April, Deutsche Boerse said it was buying SimCorp for $4.3 billion.
(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by Nick Zieminski)