Bryan, Garnier & Co advises Irium investors in the secondary LBO transaction to Initiative & Finance

Paris, May 12th 2011 – Bryan, Garnier & Co, the independent pan-European Investment bank focusing on growth companies, announces the completion of a secondary LBO lead by Initiative & Finance of IRIUM, the No.1 European ERP for Dealer, Rental & Importer Companies.

Irium is a privately owned French publisher of a performing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution for equipment distributors and dealerships within the agricultural equipment, construction equipment, heavy trucks, public works and handling equipment sectors. With more than 25 years of experience, Irium has acquired a strong reputation on its markets and build a clients portfolio made of nearly 700 distributors representing more than 14,000 users. Operations in France, Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom and Australia through wholly owned subsidiaries and employs more than 100 persons around the World with a strong Research and Development group.

Bryan Garnier Principal Investments has been working closely with the Irium management to improve the company operations, and design a growth strategy. Following a decision by the investors in the FCPR managed by Bryan, Garnier Principal Investments, it was decided to look for potential buyers, and find a liquidity solution. Initiative & Finance was chosen as the investor that could provide the support needed by the company for the next 5 years of it’s growth.

Initiative & Finance takes majority and minority equity stakes alongside entrepreneurs who operate SMEs with revenues ranging from €5 million to €100 million. Initiative & Finance invests between €1 million and €10 million per transaction, with around 10 transactions per year with no sector restrictions, addressing a wide range of buyout and development challenges.

Marc Goldberg, Managing Director at Bryan, Garnier Principal Investments, said: “This transaction illustrates our strong capabilities to create liquidity solution for existing private equity fund; the unique ability to link an investment banking group with deep domain expertise can drive the exit process and can help supporting the portfolio company CEO in the day to day activities, while creationg superior value for the fund investors”.

“Alongside Sales and Trading and Investment Banking, the Principal Investments group is a key franchise for Bryan, Garnier & Co on which we have been investing in the past years. This transaction illustrates our growing footprint in that domain”, states Greg Revenu, co-founder and Managing Partner of Bryan, Garnier & Co.

“There is still a strong appetite for niche vertical software vendors aiming to build and deploy solutions worldwide; Dealer Management systems developed by Irium fills in this category”, commented Bruno Tourme, Managing Partner, Head of Technology.

For more information, please contact:

• Marc Goldberg / Managing Director / Bryan Garnier Principal Investment / +33 6 76 75 81 86 / mgoldberg@bryangarnier.com
• Bruno Tourme / Managing Director / Head of Technology Group – Corporate Finance / +44 207 332 25 00 / btourme@bryangarnier.com
• Alexandre Boukhari / Vice President – Corporate Finance / +33 1 56 68 75 39// aboukhari@bryangarnier.com

About Irium

The IRIUM Group is the first worldwide software house for DISTRIBUTORS AND RENTAL COMPANIES. The group was created in 1983 and is the result of the merge of 3 softwarehouses: the REGIE Group, MAI and BATINIX. The IRIUM Group constitutes the first European creator of a range of ERP software specialized for the dealers, distributors, importers, rental companies and traders of industrial goods (agricultural equipment, handling, construction equipment, trucks, garden equipments).

(www.irium-group.com)

Bryan, Garnier & Co’s recent transactions:

• June 2011: Sale of Sword Insurance to leading private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners
• May 2011: Sale of Telemarket to Systeme U
• May 2011: Disposal of Sword Fircosoft to R Capital Management
• May 2011: Sale of Modelabs (MDL) to Bigben Interactive (BIG) (pending)
• May 2011: Acquisition of AES Chemunex by BioMerieux (pending)
• May 2011: IPO of Concoursmania (ALGCM)
• April 2011: Public to Private of Metrologic (MGT) led by the Carlyle Group (62% controling block followed by tender offer)
• April 2011: Buy out of DCI by its Management Team, LBO France & Capzanine