Purchase of 51% stake in BeringPro cost Softline 700 mln rubles

MOSCOW. Oct 3 (Interfax) - Softline Group's acquisition of a 51% stake in consulting company BeringPro was made at a valuation multiple of about four times EV/EBITDA, PJSC Softline mergers and acquisitions director Maxim Russkikh said at an event on the deal Thursday.

BeringPro managing partner Konstantin Popov reported that the company's EBITDA grew by 57.3% to 184 million rubles in 2024.

Based on this, the deal to buy 51% of BeringPro could have been worth about 700 million rubles.

Russkikh said two thirds of the purchase price went into the company to develop its business and pay down debt. The remaining one third was paid to the selling party, management, in cash and PJSC Softline shares, which made up about 90% of this portion of the purchase price. There is a six-month lock-up on these shares, with the gradual release of one sixth of them monthly.

"A valuation of four EBITDA is, honestly, in my understanding, actually an extremely low valuation for such a company and it is dictated by the specifics of this market where we now live," Russkikh said. The target period for recoupment of investment for this deal is about five years, he said.

Softline announced the purchase of 51% of BeringPro on October 1, but did not specify the price. The buyer was Borlas, a Softline Group company that provides information technology consulting services, like BeringPro. The two companies aim together to be among the top five IT consulting companies in 2026.

BeringPro will continue to operate under its own brand and will retain its management team. The company, which was previously part of international consulting giant KPMG, worked in Russia under the BearingPoint brand from 2002 and rebranded to BeringPro in 2024.

The company's revenue grew by more than 20% to 1.96 billion rubles last year.