LBO with
Crescendo Finance advises Hotline in its LBO transaction with the investment fund Isatis Capital

Hotline was founded in 1983 and specialises in IT support for users, offering services in the areas of facilities management, consulting, migration and deployment of IT equipment. The group provides operational maintenance services, thanks to consultants working directly with the customer or through helpdesk services for remote assistance.

After several successful external growth operations, Eric Pilet, who arrived in 2014 to take over the management of Hotline, is continuing the company’s development with the completion of a capital increase with Isatis Capital, supplemented by the subscription of senior debt provided by Banque Européenne du Crédit Mutuel and Banque Populaire Rives de Paris. This operation allows the financing of the acquisition of Metalogicfrom its founder Michel Deray , a company specialised in technical assistance and local services around the workstation, and more particularly software integration and deployment, system and network administration, and IT asset management.Thanks to this transaction, Metalogic’s CEO, Samuel Amiet, already a shareholder of the target, became a shareholder and CEO of the new consolidated entity. Mr. Pilet became President of the entire Group.

In a growing market that is getting stronger, the transaction will create a coherent group with strong business complementarities and the ability to position itself with major customers on larger projects. This acquisition is a first step in Isatis Capital’s investment strategy, which aims to carry out several successive external growth operations in order to respond to larger calls for tender while continuing to develop the group on the basis of existing clients.

The new group, renamed Metaline, achieved nearly €12m in revenues in 2017. Metalogic achieved €7.8m in turnover for €1m in net profit.