Tibor Ogrizek

Tibor Ogrizek

Slovenia

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  • Tibor Ogrizek
    Tibor Ogrizek
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    Capture One No Longer owned by Phase One?
    on: October 12, 2020 at 5:15 am

    Reply to: Because I do not see anything here on the forum, I may have heard wrong. I am sure that I heard that C1 is no longer owned or is at least a separate company from Phase One. I also heard that it is possible that Hasselblad  may be the new owner.

    As far that I can see the corporate and ownership changes came in 2019 when the Silver Fleet Capital exited the major ownership role and the Phase One Group was established.

    Previously you had just the Phase One company with company number 17 88 96 99 (established 1 July 1994) owned by Silver Fleet Capital from 2014 to 2019 (majority stake), employing 288 employees with Henrik Ole Hakonsson as Managing Director. The Chairman of the Board of Directors was Gareth Ridgwell Whiley from Silver Fleet Capital.

    Silver Fleet claims Phase One as one of their best examples of the huge potential of a fundamental change in business model. They bought Phase One in 2014 as a renowned manufacturer of high-end camera equipment and transformed it into the world’s leading brand in cutting-edge image processing software and medium format digital cameras.

    Phase One had two distinct business areas when Silver Fleet invested in the company: Image Capture Solutions and Software Imaging Systems.

    At that time Phase One had just secured US giant Google as a significant customer for its hardware business – to use Phase One cameras to take aerial pictures for mapping purposes. However, they had also identified Phase One’s other business area, its high-growth and much smaller in-house software business – Software Imaging Systems – as the primary focus for the future. Therefore, Silver Fleet invested heavily in software research and development and engineers, and worked with management to improve the functionality of the software and the rollout of new products. They also invested significantly in Capture One sales and marketing, to secure new customers and grow market share. Further more, it was Silver Fleet that had changed the way Capture One sold its products; it previously sold through perpetual licences, but they moved it to a subscription model, offering customers access to updates and increasing the likelihood of customer loyalty, improving stickiness, lifetime value per customer, and revenue visibility.

    So, in the words of Silver Fleet, their investment in Phase One helped drive a revenue compound annual growth rate of +38% in its Software Imaging Systems business unit between 2014 and 2018, and an increase in profits from the software business, from contributing 10% of group profits at acquisition to 70% of the whole of Phase One at exit.

    Silver Fleet sold the Phase One investment in June 2019 to funds managed by Axcel in a deal that valued the company at more than 15x earnings, a multiple uplift reflecting the business model transformation; generating a money multiple for the Silver Fleet clients of 4.6x.

    So, in 2019 three companies came out of Phase One:

    1) The Phase One Group, with company number 40 15 25 39 owned by Axcel Fund (56% majority stake), is employing 323 employees with Martin Høy as Director (he is with Phase One as CFO since 2018). The Chairman of the Board of Directors is Jacob Fonnesbech Aqrao (Investor in European high growth consumer tech companies), the Members of the Board of Directors are mainly from Axcel Fund. The Phase One Group was established on 12 July 2019 after Axcel bought the Phase One in June 2019. The Phase One Group owns both the Phase One and the Capture One companies. Axcel fund does not own Hasselblad.

    Outlook at the end of 2019: The Software division will continue its high growth in 2020, based on new products, new distribution systems and new OEM partnerships. The Imaging Solutions division has significant growth opportunities in primarily the Industrial market segments as the current product range is superior to that of its competitors in terms of ROI. In addition, a range of new solutions will be launched in 2020, including a new software suite. Each of the solutions will be tailored to specific customer segments e.g. aerial inspection or surveillance. Phase One Group will continue to invest in the further development and knowledge of the Group’s products, targeted distribution systems as well as potential new strategic partnerships.

    2) From the previous Phase One company with company number 17 88 96 99 the Capture One was demerged in 2019 (note: the group company Capture One was seeking to demerge, in which Phase One will be receiving the hardware activity, the demerge has effect from 1 January 2020), it is now the Capture One company with the same company number 17 88 96 99. It is employing 176 employees with Peter Granild Colsted as Managing Director (appointed in March 2020). The Chairman of the Board of Directors is Jacob Fonnesbech Aqrao (Investor in European high growth consumer tech companies), the Members of the Board of Directors are mainly from Axcel Fund. The company has entered into a merger with the parent companies XPP BidCo ApS, XPP MidCo ApS, XPP TopCo ApS as of 1 January 2019, with Capture One company as the surviving company.

    Management’s review in 2019: in order for the divisions to be able to grow on their own merits, the company is in 2020 seeking to de-merge the activities. The company organisation has functioned as such for a longer period, however, in terms of the operational backbone and legally the divisions have functioned as one company. It is expected that the de-merger will be approved mid-year with effect from 1 January 2020. The company has in late 2019 changed its name from Phase One to Capture One in order to prepare for the de-merger as the software division will remain in this legal entity. At the same time a new company has been established named Phase One and all hardware activities will be transferred to this entity.

    3) A new Phase One company with company number 40 98 66 42 was established on 3 December 2019 with Henrik Ole Håkonsson as Managing Director (also minority owner of Phase One company since 2001). The Chairman of the Board of Directors is Jacob Fonnesbech Aqrao (Investor in European high growth consumer tech companies), the Members of the Board of Directors are mainly from Axcel Fund. I assume it employs 147 employees.

    All three companies have their headquarters at the same address: Roskildevej 39, Frederiksberg, Denmark.