HgCapital to net £26m from sale of Citation Group

HgCapital Trust announced the sale of HR and employment service provider Citation Group by its manager Hg on Thursday, to investment giant KKR.

The FTSE 250 firm said it would realise estimated cash proceeds of about £25.8m on completion, which would represent an uplift of £3.6m, or 16% over the carrying value of £22.2m in the company’s net asset value as at 31 March.

Based on that net asset value, following completion HgCapital Trust’s pro-forma net asset value was expected to be £970.5m, or 237.6p per share.

The board said the company’s liquid resources available for future deployment, including all announced transactions, were estimated to be £153m.

“Hg and Citation have shown valuable collaboration over the last four years,” said Hg partner Joris Van Gool.

“Together we have helped to invest and reinforce Citation's products and services, executed on eight accretive transactions creating access to new verticals and new products for Citation's customers and driven a cloud data and artificial intelligence programme.”

HgCapital Trust said it would release its interim results for the six months ended 30 June on 14 September.

At 0913 BST, shares in HgCapital Trust were down 0.2% at 247p.