Report: Vista Seeks $1 Billion to Help Fund Jaggaer Deal

Vista Equity Partners is in funding discussions for its purchase of software firm Jaggaer.

The firm is talking with Wall Street banks and direct lenders in hopes of getting roughly $1 billion of debt financing, Bloomberg reported Tuesday (Aug. 27).

Vista has not decided what financing route it wants to take and is discussing terms with competing groups of lenders, according to the report, which cited unnamed sources.

Jaggaer and Vista announced the acquisition earlier this month, although the terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“This new partnership with Vista underscores Jaggaer’s strong momentum and the compelling value our intelligent software delivers by helping our customers manage and automate complex processes while enabling a highly resilient, responsible and integrated supplier base,” Jaggaer CEO Andy Hovancik said at the time in a press release.

“Jaggaer provides configurable source-to-pay and supplier collaboration software for direct and indirect procurement processes through a single, unified platform,” the release said. Its artificial intelligence-enabled solutions “help optimize and automate sourcing, spend management, contracting, eProcurement, invoicing and supply chain visibility.”

Private equity groups Apollo, Ares, KKR and Blackstone reportedly invested $162 billion between April and June in anticipation of a revival in deal-making. Apollo’s contribution accounted for more than 40% of the total.

Executives said they are readying for an increase in mergers and buyouts as they wait for central banks to reduce interest rates.

“The deal market is back,” said Scott Nuttall, co-head of KKR. “This year, we not only have an open market, we have pent-up supply of deals … coming to markets. So, we are optimistic.”

Private equity groups are holding onto more than $2 trillion of dry powder, a term for money that has been committed but not yet invested.

There has also been an 18-month slowdown in dealmaking triggered by the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest rate hikes, leaving companies struggling to sell existing investments and return money to their backers.