The Carlyle Group Agrees to Sell vwd, a Provider of Innovative Software Solutions to the Investment Industry, to Infront

Carlyle Supported vwd‘s Development to Become a Significant European Information and Technology Solutions Provider

London/Frankfurt – Global investment firm The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) announced today that it has agreed to sell vwd Vereinigte Wirtschaftsdienste GmbH (vwd), a European provider of software solutions for investment professionals, to Infront ASA (Infront). Infront is a European market leader for real-time market data, trading, news and analytics applications based in Oslo, Norway. The transaction is subject to approval from the relevant antitrust and financial regulatory authorities.

Headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, vwd is a provider of software for the investment industry. With its intuitive solutions on a modular technology platform, vwd empowers wealth management and investment professionals to make smarter, more efficient and regulatory-compliant investment decisions.

Carlyle invested in vwd in 2012 through Carlyle Europe Technology Partners II (CETP II), a pan-European small & mid-market buyout fund dedicated to investing in technology-focused B2B companies with annual revenues of €15 to €150 million. The CETP team has extensive global experience in the management of technology companies, as well as in German-speaking countries.

Infront was founded by CEO Kristian Nesbak and CIO Morten Lindeman in 1998 and is listed on the Oslo stock exchange. It is a leading market data and trading solution provider in the Nordics with customers in more than 50 countries.

In this new strategic partnership, vwd's comprehensive offering covering data & feed, portfolio & advisory, regulatory & calculation and publication & distribution solutions will be complemented by Infront’s best-in-class market data and trading solutions. vwd will therefore be able to continue pursuing its unified platform product strategy with Infront adding a highly sophisticated front-office trading product suite. Both vwd and Infront customers will benefit from the two companies combining their sector-defining capabilities across regulation, private wealth management and market data.       

Kristian Nesbak, Infront CEO, commented: “The merger of vwd and Infront will allow us to create one of the largest and most relevant players in Europe. Our highly complementary product solutions and core markets will enable us to pursue an ambitious common growth plan.”   

Shiva Ramabadran, vwd CEO said: “Joining forces with Infront will allow us to be an even stronger partner for our customers who will greatly benefit from a more diversified solutions offering. Due to vwd’s significant contributions to the new combined entity, we will be able to continue fulfilling all customer requests and be on the ground in our core markets.”   

Thorsten Dippel, Managing Director of the Carlyle Europe Technology Partners (CETP) team said: “Infront is an ideal partner for vwd. We are delighted to see that Infront will support and accelerate vwd’s successful strategic development. We would like to thank vwd’s management team for their trust and cooperation during our successful partnership and wish vwd and Infront continued future success.” 

vwd's management team will be fully integrated into the new joint executive team and will remain as ongoing contacts for all vwd customers and business partners.

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Media contacts:

Catherine Armstrong
T +44 20 7894 1632, catherine.armstrong@carlyle.com

Katharina Gebsattel
T +49 172 718 68 57, katharina.gebsattel@vub.de

About The Carlyle Group

The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) is a global investment firm with deep industry expertise that deploys private capital across four business segments: Corporate Private Equity, Real Assets, Global Credit and Investment Solutions. With $216 billion of assets under management as of December 31, 2018, Carlyle’s purpose is to invest wisely and create value on behalf of our investors, portfolio companies and the communities in which we live and invest. The Carlyle Group employs more than 1,650 people in 31 offices across six continents.

Web: www.carlyle.com
Videos: www.youtube.com/onecarlyle 
Tweets: www.twitter.com/onecarlyle
Podcasts: www.carlyle.com/about-carlyle/market-commentary

About Infront

Infront provides a unique combination of global market data, news, analytics and trading tools. With over 20 years of product development driven by our clients’ business needs, the Infront Professional Terminal is the most user-friendly and flexible terminal in the financial market. We help buy-side and sell-side institutions grow their businesses, reduce costs, adapt to fast changing market requirements and work more effectively with ever-increasing amounts of information. Over 40,000 professional subscribers worldwide rely on Infront’s services. Infront is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange and has offices in eight countries across Europe and South Africa.

About vwd

vwd is a leading software provider for the investment industry, With its intuitive solutions on a modular technology platform, vwd empowers wealth management and investment professionals to make smarter, more efficient and regulatory compliant investment decisions. Headquartered in Frankfurt, vwd has offices in 6 countries where it serves more than 2,400 businesses with data, services and software solutions.

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