Halifax Group’s MTW Finds TiG –

After just one year of a three-to-four year holding period, The Halifax Group LLC has sold its interest in MTW Corp., a provider of Web-related application architecture, software and services to publicly traded The Innovation Group PLC (TiG) for an undisclosed amount. Terms of the transaction were undisclosed.

The transaction was described as “quite a surprise” by Halifax Group’s Managing Director Billy Ellis.

“When we purchased MTW a year ago, we had intended to hold the investment for the traditional period of three to four years,” Ellis said. “But this opportunity came up and we had a buyer that fits strategically and synergistically with MTW. TiG is the most appropriate buyer for this business, and we were blown away by their vision and capacity to execute.”

The Halifax Group and Mellon Ventures invested $26.4 million of equity in MTW last September and were able to double their return on their equity commitment, Ellis said.

Ellis said TiG initially contacted MTW last October about a possible sale, but the firm “wasn’t initially interested in an exit” at the time. But over the next several months, the partners at Halifax felt that doing a deal with TiG would allow the management team to take this company where they wanted to go, faster.

TiG, which is a developer and distributor of event management software for the insurance industry, is aiming to become the leading global supplier of insurance e-business solutions and felt that MTW has the right ingredients for its products.

“MTW immediately provides TiG with personnel that will help the company’s expansion into the U.S. while its software component and expertise can help add significant value to TiG’s complete product offering,” Ellis said. “TiG has an unmatched number of customers that are a pipeline for MTW’s software package and the two companies working together are going to accomplish a lot in the insurance field.”

Given the state of the technology sector Ellis also noted that for Halifax, this transaction was an opportunity to post a very successful closing in an extremely difficult technology environment.