Paris — Ardian, one of the world’s leading inde­pen­dent invest­ment firms, today announ­ced the acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity stake in the insu­rance company Opteven, which specia­li­zes in insu­rance coverage against tech­ni­cal defects on vehic­les, main­ten­ance contracts and mobile services in the event of vehicle break­downs. Ardian Expan­sion Fund IV has acqui­red the shares of Aviva, a multi­na­tio­nal insu­rance company, and Capza­nine.

Capza­nine, a Euro­pean private invest­ment fund, is reinves­t­ing in the company toge­ther with the manage­ment, offe­ring the more than 150 employees the oppor­tu­nity to acquire shares in Opteven.

The tran­sac­tion will enable the company to conti­nue its orga­nic growth and also incre­asingly pursue an exter­nal growth strategy.

Opteven was foun­ded in 1985 and is head­quar­te­red in Lyon. The company is a leader in vehicle service and mobi­lity contracts in France and Europe. Opteven specia­li­zes in poli­cies cove­ring coverage for tech­ni­cal defects and mobile services. In addi­tion, Opteven offers services in the areas of buil­ding and busi­ness insu­rance, health­care and other services.

Over the past ten years, the company has grown stron­gly and curr­ently gene­ra­tes sales of around 150 million euros with more than 450 employees.

Opteven is known for high service quality and enjoys the trust of its custo­mers, which include compa­nies from the insu­rance and finan­cial sectors as well as commer­cial custo­mers from the auto­mo­tive indus­try such as manu­fac­tu­r­ers, dealers, rental compa­nies and fleet operators.

In order to pick up on and anti­ci­pate chan­ges in the market, the company has pushed ahead with its digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion. A dedi­ca­ted inter­nal depart­ment, Opteven Lab, iden­ti­fies and analy­zes new trends in areas such as mobi­lity, services and the envi­ron­ment. From this, Opteven deve­lops and tests inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons incor­po­ra­ting the latest tech­no­lo­gies and taking into account contem­po­rary forms of mobility.

Opteven curr­ently opera­tes in seven count­ries across Europe and has estab­lished subsi­dia­ries in Italy, the UK and Spain to conti­nue its growth across Europe.

Jean-Matthieu Biseau, CEO at Opteven, said, “Opteven’s posi­tio­ning in both the tech­ni­cal defects and mobile services segments makes the company unique. Opteven opera­tes in a growing market that is under­go­ing a conso­li­da­tion phase. That’s why it was important for us to find a part­ner who could support us in our ambi­tious growth stra­tegy in Europe, espe­ci­ally in acquisitions.”

Marie Arnaud-Batt­an­­dier (photo), Mana­ging Direc­tor at Ardian Expan­sion, added: “We look forward to working with Opteven’s skil­led manage­ment team, which has an outstan­ding track record. In parti­cu­lar, we will use our Euro­pean network to help Opteven acce­le­rate growth, open new loca­ti­ons and iden­tify compa­nies for poten­tial acquisition.”

Benoit Chop­pin, Asso­ciate Direc­tor at Capza­nine, added: “The company has perfor­med extre­mely well over the past five years and we have greatly appre­cia­ted working with the excel­lent manage­ment team led by Jean-Matthieu Biseau. Opteven has all the prere­qui­si­tes to conti­nue its successful course. That’s why we deci­ded to reinvest as a mino­rity shareholder.”

The tran­sac­tion was appro­ved by ACPR, the French banking and insu­rance regulator.

About Opteven
Opteven is one of the leading provi­ders of mobi­lity poli­cies and services in France and Europe.
Opteven is an inde­pen­dent group head­quar­te­red in Lyon, opera­ting in seven count­ries in Europe and with subsi­dia­ries in Italy, the United King­dom and Spain. The company’s growth over the past ten years has shown that the quality of its services is highly appre­cia­ted by commer­cial custo­mers from the auto­mo­tive indus­try (manu­fac­tu­r­ers, dealers, lessors), insu­rance compa­nies and banks. Opteven will gene­rate sales of 150 million euros in the current year and manage nearly 500,000 claims. With a port­fo­lio of more than 1,000,000 auto­mo­tive service contracts and nearly 3,000,000 roadside assis­tance contracts, Opteven has a unique posi­tio­ning in its markets.

About Capza­nine
Capza­nine was foun­ded in 2004 and is a Euro­pean private invest­ment fund. Capza­nine supports compa­nies in their growth and contri­bu­tes to their success in growth and trans­for­ma­tion phases through its finan­cial and indus­trial exper­tise. Capza­nine offers flexi­ble long-term finan­cing solu­ti­ons for SMEs and mid-cap compa­nies. Depen­ding on the situa­tion, Capza­nine invests as a majo­rity or mino­rity share­hol­der and/or as a private debt provi­der (mezza­nine, unitran­che, senior debt) in unlis­ted small and mid-cap compa­nies with an enter­prise value of 30 to 400 million euros. While Capza­nine is flexi­bly posi­tio­ned, the company speci­fi­cally supports strong value-added compa­nies in the health­care, tech­no­logy, food and services sectors. Capza­nine is based in Paris and curr­ently mana­ges around 2.5 billion euros. Recent invest­ments include Hori­zon Soft­ware, Goiko Grill, Recom­merce, MBA and Monviso.

About Ardian
Ardian is one of the world’s leading inde­pen­dent invest­ment firms, mana­ging appro­xi­m­ately US$72 billion in assets on behalf of its inves­tors from Europe, South and North America and Asia. The company is majo­rity-owned by its employees and gene­ra­tes sustainable, attrac­tive returns for its investors.

With the objec­tive of achie­ving posi­tive results for all stake­hol­ders, Ardian’s acti­vi­ties promote indi­vi­du­als, compa­nies and econo­mies world­wide. Ardian’s invest­ment philo­so­phy is aligned with the three guiding prin­ci­ples of excel­lence, loyalty and entrepreneurship.

The company has a global network of more than 530 employees and 14 offices in Europe (Frank­furt, Jersey, London, Luxem­bourg, Madrid, Milan, Paris and Zurich), South America (Sant­iago de Chile), North America (New York and San Fran­cisco) and Asia (Beijing, Singa­pore and Tokyo). Ardian mana­ges the assets of its appro­xi­m­ately 750 inves­tors in five invest­ment areas: Direct Funds, Funds of Funds, Infra­struc­ture, Private Debt and Real Estate.

Advi­sor of the transaction

Acqui­rer: Ardian Expansion
Marie Arnaud-Batt­an­­dier, Maxime Séquier, Claire d’Esquerre

Advi­sors to the acqui­rer: Nati­xis Part­ners (Valé­rie Pelle­reau, Patrice Raulin), Goetz­part­ners CF (Guil­laume Piette)

Legal, Fiscal and Social Advi­sor: Weil, Gotshal & Manges (Frédé­ric Cazals, Alex­an­dra Stoicescu, Lise Laplaud, Cassandre Porges, Kalish Mullen)

Stra­te­gic Advi­sor: Oliver Wyman (Olivier De Deman­dolx, Tarik Ouahmed)

Finan­cial, Actua­rial, Fiscal, Social and Legal Advi­sor: Ernst & Young (Cyril de Beco, Pauline Fabre)

Finan­cing: BNP (Guil­laume Redaud), LCL (Emilie Bosselut)

Seller: Capza­nine
David Hoppenot, Benoit Chop­pin, Bruno Bonnin

A Plus Finance: Olivier Gillot

Advi­sors to the seller: Tran­sac­tion R — Roth­schild (Pierre Sader, Raphaël Fassier)

Manage­ment Advi­sor: Scotto (Nico­las Menard-Durand)

Legal Advi­sor: Good­win (Jérôme Jouhan­neaud, David Diamant)

Stra­te­gic VDD: Indefi (Julien Berger)

Finan­cial VDD: Deloitte (Vincent Rapiau, Cyril Chalin, Davide Artigiani)

Finan­cial, Actua­rial, Fiscal and Legal Advi­sor: Deloitte

Social Advi­sor: Aguerra et Associés