TEMPLE, Texas — TA Associates, a private equity firm, has announced a majority investment in Professional Datasolutions Inc. (PDI), a provider of enterprise-resource planning (ERP) software and services to the convenience-retail and petroleum-wholesale industries.
Describing PDI as “particularly well-positioned” among the largest convenience-store chains, Hythem El-Nazer, a managing director for Boston-based TA Associates, will join the board of directors of Temple, Texas-based PDI.
“With a highly attractive, recurring-revenue model; a committed and loyal customer base; and an accomplished management team, PDI offers an exciting investment opportunity for TA,” El-Nazer said. “We are pleased to partner with PDI to accelerate the company’s strategic growth initiatives.”
As reported in a McLane/CSP Daily News Flash, the companies did not disclose the financial terms of the transaction.
PDI’s ERP software solution and related services are designed to help convenience-store retailers and wholesale-petroleum marketers more effectively operate their businesses. The company’s core system, PDI/Enterprise, features multiple suites addressing a number of functional areas, including retail automation, supply-chain management, business intelligence, financial reporting and workforce management. Serving large convenience-store chains and wholesalers, PDI has more than 330 customers primarily in the United States, along with what the company described as a growing presence internationally.
“We are delighted to welcome TA Associates to our company and to our board,” said Greg Gilkerson, founder and CEO of PDI. “TA has significant experience investing in the software sector and notable success in building additional value through accelerating organic growth and complementing it with strategic acquisitions. We anticipate a close collaboration with TA, leveraging their industry knowledge and global resources as we look to accelerate our growth. We also want to thank Luminate Capital Partners and its founder, Hollie Haynes, whose April 2015 investment in PDI helped support our growth and make possible the acquisition by TA. With Scott Kingsfield continuing as PDI’s executive chairman and TA’s software-investing experience, we can now enhance our growth plans for PDI.”
“PDI and Luminate Capital Partners worked intensely this past year to develop PDI into a company that would be attractive to someone like TA Associates," Gilkerson told CSP Daily News. "TA has a great record of investing in a few select companies each year and really providing a rich slate of resources to grow these businesses. We are thrilled that we will be able to continue with our current strategies, but on a more rapid pace."
“We believe partnering with TA will help us further PDI’s organic and inorganic growth, within not only our core market but also adjacencies,” said Kingsfield. “TA’s strategic investment allows PDI to accelerate investments in products so that we can continue to provide world-class software and services to our customer base. We look forward to working closely with TA as we pursue these initiatives.”
Harry Taylor, a managing director at TA who will also join PDI’s board says c-stores have been growing non-fuel revenue for a while, thereby increasing operational complexities. “As a result, we expect a continuation in the accelerating market demand for the type of advanced, enterprise-class software systems and add-on modules that PDI provides.”
Kirkland & Ellis, Chicago, served as legal counsel to PDI. Weil, Gotshal & Manges, New York, served as legal counsel to TA Associates.
TA Associates is one of the largest global-growth private-equity firms. The firm has invested in more than 460 companies around the world and has raised $24 billion in capital. With offices in Boston; Menlo Park, Calif.; London; Mumbai, India; and Hong Kong, TA Associates leads buyouts and minority recapitalizations of profitable growth companies in the business services, consumer, financial services, healthcare and technology industries.
Luminate Capital Partners, based in San Francisco, is a private-equity firm focused on making investments in middle-market software and software-enabled services companies. Luminate partners with management teams to provide flexible capital in order to drive strategy, growth and operational improvements.
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