SSM Partners makes 7x off Datacert exit

Datacert, whose corporate parent is Third Coast Holdings Inc, was valued at $290 million, in its purchase by Netherlands-based Wolters Kluwer in a deal that closed on April 7.

As the only institutional investor in Datacert, SSM Partners led a $10 million financing round in 2007.

“As evidenced by the success of investments such as Datacert, we feel that growth equity represents an attractive asset class and are optimistic about the future,” Wilson Orr, managing partner of SSM, said in a prepared statement.

Wolters Kluwer said it bought the 62 percent of Third Coast Holdings that it did not already own for about $180 million, excluding acquired cash.

Houston-based Datacert is described as one of the world`s leading providers of enterprise legal management software, including legal billing and matter management, for more than 120 clients in more than 140 countries.

Datacert will be combined with Wolters Kluwer Corporate Legal Services’s TyMetrix unit to ”establish an enhanced leadership position,” according to a prepared statement from Wolters Kluwer. More than 80 percent of Datacert’s 2013 revenue of $57 million was subscription-based.

Including integration benefits, Datacert is expected to deliver a return on total investment above Wolters Kluwer`s after tax-cost of capital within three to five years, the company said.

“This acquisition is in line with our strategy to continue to invest capital to extend our leading, growing businesses, of which corporate legal services is one,” Nancy McKinstry, CEO and chairman of the executive board of Wolters Kluwer, said in a prepared statement.