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GTCR and Opus Global Acquire Hiperos
[July 08, 2014]

GTCR and Opus Global Acquire Hiperos


CHICAGO & BRANCHBURG, N.J. --(Business Wire)--

GTCR, a leading private equity firm, today announced that Opus Global Holdings, LLC ("Opus Global"), its management partnership led by former VeriFone CEO Douglas Bergeron, has acquired Hiperos, LLC ("Hiperos"). Hiperos is a rapidly growing global specialist in third party management, connecting many of the world's largest companies to over 300,000 third parties. Hiperos' rapidly deployable, highly flexible SaaS (News - Alert)-based solutions serve the third party-related information management, risk, compliance and performance needs of Global 2000 companies such as Aetna, Alcoa, AON, AstraZeneca, AXA, Bank of Montreal, CA Technologies, Charles Schwab, Kraft Foods, Mondelez, Microsoft, News Corporation, PNC Bank, Rockwell Automation (News - Alert), Sun Life Financial, State Street, TD Bank, and United Technologies.

The investment in Hiperos illustrates GTCR's and Opus Global's focus on assembling a market-leading risk and compliance platform. Strong secular growth in this area is being driven by a significant number of market, legal and regulatory trends, and there are few providers of effective technology solutions aimed at managing global compliance imperatives.

Hiperos, with its unique, purpose-built and highly scalable solutions, is an ideal platform for executing on this thesis. GTCR and Opus Global - in partnership with Hiperos' current management team and CEO Greg Dickinson - will look to accelerate the Company's strong rate of organic growth by investing in global expansion and product development that further establishes its market leadership in third-party management. In addition, GTCR and Opus Global believe there are a number of opportunities to supplement Hiperos' organic growth with complementary acquisitions.

"Risk and compliance, and the burgeoning third-party management sector in particular, represents an enormous and underserved market for innovative applications, particularly among large enterprises. As we assemble the key components of our risk and compliance platform, we will seek to build the leading compliance and risk management partner to all of the Global 2000," said Opus Global CEO Doug Bergeron. "I am excited to once again partner with GTCR, and look forward to working with Greg Dickinson and the rest of Hiperos' extremely accomplished management team as we invest together in the next stage of the Company's growth."

"We are extremely excited to make Hiperos the initial platform for Opus Global's long-term vision in risk and compliance," said GTCR Managing Director Collin E. Rohe. "This is a market in which we have a tremendous amount of interest and expertise, and we believe the intersection of mounting regulatory imperatives, increased complexity and growing corporate focus on risk management represents an enormous opportunity for innovative solution providers that can improve the business processes exposed to these corporate requirements and related risks. Hiperos is well-positioned to capitalize on these trends, and we are excited to once again partner with Doug Bergeron."



Added Aaron D. Cohen, Managing Director at GTCR, "Michele Flynn, Greg Dickinson and the Hiperos management team have done a remarkable job in building a company capable of meeting the third-party management needs of many of the world's largest corporations. With Doug Bergeron's experience in building and managing global businesses and GTCR's considerable capital backing, we look forward to supporting and accelerating Hiperos' growth through investment in distribution, infrastructure and innovative product development."

GTCR's investment in Hiperos will be made from GTCR Fund X, a private equity fund with $3.25 billion of committed capital.


Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal counsel and Ernst & Young served as accounting advisor to GTCR.

About GTCR

Founded in 1980, GTCR is a leading private equity firm focused on investing in growth companies in the Financial Services & Technology, Healthcare and Information Services & Technology industries. The Chicago-based firm pioneered The Leaders Strategy™ - finding and partnering with management leaders in core domains to identify, acquire and build market-leading companies through transformational acquisitions and organic growth. Since its inception, GTCR has invested more than $10 billion in over 200 companies. For more information, please visit www.gtcr.com.

About Opus Global

Headquartered in Palo Alto (News - Alert), California, Opus Global was created through a partnership between GTCR, one of the world's leading private equity firms, and Doug Bergeron, former CEO of VeriFone. GTCR and Mr. Bergeron may invest up to $500 million to support Opus Global's strategy. Through its direct investments and targeted acquisitions, Opus Global seeks to build a leading technology platform that integrates solutions to address the increasingly complex compliance requirements and risks faced by companies in every industry. Opus Global's mission is to establish itself as a long-term partner capable of delivering significant value to businesses through the aggregation of content, software-based solutions and related services.

For more information about Opus Global, please visit www.opusglobal.com.

About Hiperos

Hiperos is a leader in third party management software, connecting many of the world's largest companies to over 300,000 third parties. The company's flagship product, Hiperos 3PM™, is the only solution in the market that is purpose-built to simultaneously minimize the risks of using third parties while maximizing the value they provide. Implemented by Global 2000 companies and business consortiums across a range of industry verticals, including energy, financial services, food, real estate, pharmaceuticals, and technology, Hiperos 3PM™ has become the industry's most widely used SaaS-based third-party management solution. The winner of industry awards and accolades for the proven value and low cost of ownership it delivers, Hiperos 3PM™ enables companies to protect their brand and revenues by implementing an automated, consistent approach to third party onboarding, measurement, monitoring and controls, throughout their lifecycle. Hiperos' clients include many of the world's leading companies such as Aetna, Alcoa, AON, Arrow Electronics, Astra Zeneca, AXA, Bank of Montreal, CA (News - Alert) Technologies, Charles Schwab, Huntington Bank, Kraft Foods, Mondelez, Microsoft, News Corporation, Peabody, PNC Bank, Rockwell Automation, Sun Life Financial, State Street, TD Bank, and United Technologies.

For more information visit http://www.hiperos.com.


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