The Carlyle Group agrees to sell KCS.net to Avanade

London – Global Alternative Asset Manager The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) has agreed to sell KCS.net, a vendor of Microsoft Dynamics business applications, to Avanade, a global business technology solutions, cloud and managed services provider majority owned by Accenture. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in Q2 2015.

Headquartered in St. Gallen, Switzerland and employing 300 people across 16 locations, KCS.net is one of the largest independent Microsoft Dynamics partners in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (DACH), and a leading vendor of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solutions as well as related consulting services.  

After investing in KCS.net in February 2008 through Carlyle Europe Technology Partners (CETP I), Carlyle supported the Company’s growth through organic development and selective add-on acquisitions to execute on the company’s long-term strategy of becoming a leading “One Microsoft Solution Provider” in the DACH market. 

Michael Wand, Managing Director at The Carlyle Group said, “KCS.net is an excellent example of Carlyle’s value creation model. When we acquired the business we set out to build one of the largest independent Microsoft Dynamics business applications vendors in the DACH region. Having tripled revenue during our holding period while maintaining an above average profitability, we have succeeded in our plan, and the acquisition by Avanade is proof of the strategic value of KCS.net.  We thank the KCS.net management team for their great work and wish them continued success with Avanade.  With the KCS.net sale we have exited our last investment from our 2005 vintage fund CETP I.”

Kay Laukat, CEO of KCS.net, said, “We are extremely happy to have partnered with Carlyle, which has provided strategic support and direction to the business and assisted in the fast growth of the company. During this period, we have significantly strengthened our geographic footprint and expanded our product offering, while continuing with our commitment to provide excellent customer service. We look forward to being part of the strong, future-oriented team at Avanade. This will be the next important step as we expand our service offering and product portfolios.”

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About The Carlyle Group
The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) is a global alternative asset manager with $193 billion of assets under management across 130 funds and 156 fund of funds vehicles as of March 31, 2015. Carlyle’s purpose is to invest wisely and create value on behalf of its investors, many of whom are public pensions. Carlyle invests across four segments – Corporate Private Equity, Real Assets, Global Market Strategies and Investment Solutions – in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, North America and South America. Carlyle has expertise in various industries, including: aerospace, defense & government services, consumer & retail, energy, financial services, healthcare, industrial, real estate, technology & business services, telecommunications & media and transportation. The Carlyle Group employs more than 1,650 people in 40 offices across six continents.

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About KCS.net
KCS.net was founded in 1989 and is today with a total of 300 employees at 16 locations a leading Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Dynamics CRM and SharePoint partner in Germany, Austria and Switzerland with Microsoft Gold certifications for ERP, CRM and Collaboration & Content. The highly qualified and certified KCS.net teams implement tailor-made, user friendly and international deployable business software solutions at discrete and process manufacturers as well as service and wholesale companies. Combining the best Microsoft technologies and the extensive industry expertise of all employees, KCS.net covers the most important pillars of business IT solutions and can therefore address the complex business requirements of their customers. For more information about KCS.net please visit www.kcs.net

About Avanade
Avanade helps clients realize results in a digital world through business technology solutions, cloud and managed services that combine insight, innovation and expertise focused on Microsoft technologies. Our people have helped organizations in all industries improve business agility, employee productivity and customer loyalty. Avanade combines business, technical and industry expertise with the rigor of an industrialized delivery model to provide and deploy high quality solutions–on premises, cloud-based or outsourced. Avanade, which is majority owned by Accenture, was founded in 2000 by Accenture LLP and Microsoft Corporation and has 23,000 professionals in more than 20 countries. Additional information can be found at www.avanade.com. 

Avanade and the Avanade logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Avanade Inc. Other product, service, or company names mentioned herein are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners

Media Contacts:

The Carlyle Group
Catherine Armstrong
+44 20 7894 1632
Catherine.Armstrong@carlyle.com

Avanade
Jennifer Kahn
+44 (0)7917 751 605
jennifer.kahn@avanade.com

KCS.net
Petra Auracher  
+41-79-2551611
petra.auracher@kcs.net

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