The Carlyle Group to Invest in Companeo, Europe’s Largest B2B Online Lead Generator

London - Global alternative asset manager The Carlyle Group today announced that it will acquire a majority interest in Companeo SA alongside the company’s founders and management team. Historical shareholders Alven Capital and SGPA will retain a minority stake. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Companeo is Europe’s largest online B2B lead generator. Through its online marketplace, Companeo brings together more than 700,000 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and more than 4,000 agreed suppliers across the UK, France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

From offices in London, Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels, Companeo’s lead generation service enables SMEs, the self-employed, retailers, associations and local communities to receive quotes from qualified suppliers across more than 100 services and products categories. Companeo independently selects suppliers based primarily on quality, and offers unbiased expert advice through the internet and phone. The Company also invests substantial resources in qualifying users’ requests for quotes, guaranteeing the quality of commercial leads it sends on to its supplier base. Companeo has 700,000 registered users and has processed more than 2,000,000 requests for quotes to date.

Vladimir Lasocki, Managing Director of The Carlyle Group, commented, “Companeo holds the dominant position in a high growth market fuelled by powerful underlying trends and strong long term prospects. Since 2000, the company’s founders have taken the company into prime market positions in France, UK, Belgium and the Netherlands. Carlyle intends to help the company expand further in Europe, including potentially into Germany and Spain, to consolidate Companeo’s European leadership.”

Laurent Horwitz, Chief Executive and Co-Founder, said, “Companeo has been on a rapid growth path over the past decade. During that time, we have honed our key expertise, which lies in our ability to manage effectively and profitably the fine balance between generating and qualifying leads and recruiting first-rate local suppliers across 100 product and service categories. We are delighted to have found in Carlyle an investor whose resources and expertise will help propel us forward as we continue to grow, expand geographically and consolidate our position as a market leader in this area.”

Companeo’s financial advisors were Lazard; strategic due diligence was provided by Greene6 Partners; financial due diligence was provided by Deloitte; legal advisors were Frieh & Associés, Jones Day and Staub & Associes; debt providers were Société générale, BNP Paribas and LCL.

Equity for this investment will come from Carlyle Europe Technology Partners (CETP) II, a €530m fund that closed in November 2008. Since 2002, Carlyle’s European technology team has acquired and invested in 19 small and medium-sized companies, supporting their growth, expansion and business transformation initiatives in the technology space.

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About Companeo

With 700,000 users, over 4,000 contracted suppliers, and a presence in four countries (United Kingdom, Belgium, Netherlands, France), Companeo is the leading European player in online SMB business lead generation. The Company offers an online marketplace used by small and medium size businesses looking to find qualified suppliers meeting their requirements across over 100 product and service categories (incl. IT, marketing services, telecoms, vending, human resources, financial services, automobile, etc.). The platform enables users to submit requests for quotes for goods and services to a large base of qualified suppliers. Companeo has contracted with these suppliers and it sells them the commercial leads generated by SMBs, which it qualifies and matches through its own proprietary process. Companeo therefore offers an attractive value proposition to SMBs, who use the platform to rationalize their procurement processes by finding quickly and for free the most appropriate supplier. Equally, suppliers find in Companeo an effective tool to reach an attractive but hard-to-get and diffuse customer base.

The Company was founded in 2000, it is headquartered close to Paris and has more than 140 employees in its Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and London offices. www.companeo.co.uk, www.companeo.com

Alven Capital

Alven Capital is a venture capital fund, managing €150M, mostly for institutional investors. Alven Capital invests in high growth companies in the media, services, and information technology sectors. Alven Capital has already invested in 40 European companies, including Pickup-services, Bi-Sam, CWS, Liligo, Planetveo, Aquarelle, SeLoger.com, myfab, MeilleursAgents.com, Newsweb/Boursier.com, MonShowroom, Plantes-et-jardins, Wanimo, eBoutich, Mobile Tag, Qosmos, Webhelp, Prowebce, etc. www.alvencapital.com

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