Francisco Partners and KKR have agreed terms to acquire minority stakes in Italian business software company TeamSystem from majority shareholder Hellman & Friedman, in a transaction valuing the company at between €8 billion and €10 billion, according to Reuters.
Francisco Partners is expected to acquire approximately 10% of TeamSystem from Hellman & Friedman, while another roughly 5% stake is being sold to a group of investors that includes KKR, according to people familiar with the transaction.
The reported €8 billion to €10 billion valuation is equivalent to approximately $9.27 billion to $11.59 billion based on the exchange rate cited by Reuters.
TeamSystem provides accounting, payroll and business management software to companies and professionals, with a particularly strong presence among small and midsized businesses.
The company has developed a broad software platform covering core business applications, financial technology and other digital tools intended to help companies and professional firms automate and manage their operations.
The transaction would bring two additional major private equity investors into TeamSystem while allowing Hellman & Friedman to realize part of the significant value created since it first invested in the company in 2016.
Hellman & Friedman held approximately 69% of TeamSystem as of July, according to a corporate filing cited by Reuters.
Existing shareholders also include technology-focused investment firm Silver Lake, which held approximately 12.8%, and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, or ADIA, which held approximately 9.8%.
Silver Lake originally agreed in 2023 to make a €600 million strategic minority investment in TeamSystem by acquiring shares from Hellman & Friedman.
That transaction left Hellman & Friedman as TeamSystem’s majority shareholder while adding another major technology investor to the company’s ownership group.
The latest transaction would further diversify TeamSystem’s investor base while giving Hellman & Friedman another route for generating liquidity from a portfolio company it has owned for approximately a decade.
Rather than pursuing a traditional public offering, Hellman & Friedman is reportedly using what has been described as a “private IPO” process.
Under the structure, the private equity firm would sell minority stakes to new investors while transferring its remaining TeamSystem investment into another Hellman & Friedman fund.
That approach can allow a sponsor to generate liquidity and return capital to investors without requiring the portfolio company to complete an IPO or be sold outright to another buyer.
It can also allow the existing sponsor to maintain significant exposure to a business it believes has additional growth potential.
The structure is particularly notable given the difficult environment for exits across private equity.
Higher financing costs, uneven public-market conditions and valuation disagreements between buyers and sellers have complicated conventional private equity exits in recent years.
Large sponsors have consequently explored alternative liquidity structures, including continuation vehicles, minority stake sales and transactions involving new funds managed by the same private equity firm.
For Hellman & Friedman, TeamSystem represents a substantial example of value creation during a long holding period.
When the firm first invested in TeamSystem in 2016, the software company generated approximately €75 million of EBITDA, according to a person familiar with the business cited by Reuters.
TeamSystem now generates more than €1.3 billion in annual revenue and approximately €600 million in core earnings.
That means the company’s earnings base has expanded dramatically under Hellman & Friedman’s ownership.
Based on the approximately €600 million of current core earnings cited by Reuters, the reported €8 billion to €10 billion valuation represents roughly 13 to 17 times that earnings figure.
TeamSystem reported adjusted EBITDA of €476 million in 2025, and an €8 billion valuation would represent approximately 16.8 times that amount.
The company’s growth has been supported in part by the continued digitization of accounting, payroll and business administration across Italy and other European markets.
TeamSystem’s products are particularly embedded in workflows involving government electronic invoicing systems used by Italian small and midsized businesses.
One source told Reuters that those integrations make TeamSystem’s products more difficult for AI-based competitors to replicate because the value of the software extends beyond basic functionality into established workflows, regulatory requirements and connections with government systems.
That positioning is particularly relevant as investors reassess the long-term value of software companies amid rapid advances in generative artificial intelligence.
Software stocks have experienced significant volatility as investors debate whether AI will strengthen incumbent software companies by improving their products or weaken them by allowing new competitors to reproduce existing functionality more quickly and cheaply.
Those concerns have also affected private software valuations and complicated transactions involving mature technology companies.
The TeamSystem deal suggests major technology investors remain willing to commit substantial capital to established software platforms where products are deeply integrated into essential business processes.
Francisco Partners specializes heavily in technology investing and has extensive experience acquiring and investing in software businesses.
KKR also has a substantial global technology investment franchise spanning software, digital infrastructure and technology-enabled businesses.
Their reported investments would add additional private equity expertise to an ownership group that already includes Hellman & Friedman and Silver Lake.
For TeamSystem, the expanded investor base could provide additional resources and strategic support as the company continues developing its software platform and expanding geographically.
The company has historically focused on helping businesses and accountants digitize administrative and financial processes in Italy and Spain.
Its offerings have expanded beyond traditional accounting software into financial technology, cloud services, artificial intelligence tools and other business applications.
TeamSystem’s scale has also changed considerably since Hellman & Friedman’s original investment.
When Silver Lake announced its investment in 2023, TeamSystem said its customer base had increased from approximately 200,000 when Hellman & Friedman initially invested in 2016 to roughly 1.8 million customers at that time.
The latest reported revenue and earnings figures indicate that growth has continued as businesses increasingly move accounting, payroll, payments and other administrative functions onto digital platforms.
The transaction also arrives as TeamSystem continues accessing the debt markets.
In June 2026, the company priced €700 million of senior secured fixed-rate notes due in 2032, according to its investor relations materials.
The combination of new equity investors and continued debt-market access provides TeamSystem with multiple sources of capital as it enters its next stage of development.
For Hellman & Friedman, the transaction offers the opportunity to monetize part of one of its longstanding European software investments while retaining exposure to the company through another fund.
That could allow the firm to return capital to investors in the existing vehicle while continuing to participate in future appreciation.
The transaction may also become an important reference point for valuations across the European software sector.
A valuation of €8 billion to €10 billion for a company generating more than €1.3 billion of revenue and approximately €600 million in core earnings indicates that investors remain willing to assign substantial valuations to profitable, scaled software businesses with entrenched customer relationships.
The deal comes during a period when private equity firms are looking for ways to generate distributions for limited partners without relying exclusively on public listings.
IPO markets have remained challenging for many large sponsor-owned companies, increasing interest in private transactions that bring new institutional investors into established portfolio companies.
TeamSystem’s reported “private IPO” structure provides one possible model.
Rather than requiring a single buyer to acquire the entire company, Hellman & Friedman can gradually broaden the shareholder base, realize part of its investment and potentially establish a market valuation for TeamSystem while retaining control or significant ownership.
Hellman & Friedman, Francisco Partners, KKR and TeamSystem declined to comment on the reported transaction.
If completed on the terms reported, Francisco Partners would become one of TeamSystem’s largest minority shareholders with approximately 10%, while KKR would participate in an additional roughly 5% stake being acquired by a group of investors.
The transaction would value TeamSystem at as much as €10 billion and mark another significant private equity investment in European business software despite broader concerns about the potential disruption created by artificial intelligence.
