Ardian announces the sale of its stake in Trustteam to Rivean Capital

Ardian, a world leading private investment house, announces today it has signed an agreement with Rivean Capital to sell its majority stake in Trustteam, a leading IT managed services provider headquartered in Kortrijk, Belgium.

Founded in 2002 by Stijn Vandeputte, Trustteam serves a broad base of c.6,500 active customers in Belgium and France with a one-stop-shop offering covering the full spectrum of IT services and equipment, cloud, connectivity, cybersecurity and software solutions. Trustteam assists SME clients who typically have limited internal IT skills and expertise and therefore prefer a trustworthy and preferred partner that can offer full unburdening from an IT perspective. The company benefits from long-term, secular growth fueled by the increasing digitization of the economy and businesses, the transition from on-premise hardware into the cloud, growing IT complexity, and increased IT outsourcing. 

Since Ardian’s acquisition of a majority stake in 2018, Trustteam has rapidly grown both through solid organic growth and targeted M&A. Trustteam and its management, with the backing from Ardian, have successfully completed 6 add-ons in France and Belgium, with France now representing more than 30% of the group’s revenues.

” Over the last years, we have significantly accelerated our development and have further professionalized the group, tripling the revenues of the company. We would like to express our gratitude to the Ardian Expansion team for their continuous support and guidance over the past years. We look forward to starting a new chapter with our partner Rivean Capital who have demonstrated an outstanding understanding of our business and full compatibility with our culture.” Stijn Vandeputte, Founder & CEO of Trustteam

“Since our entry to the capital of Trustteam, our objective has been to accompany the Group in its development in Belgium and France through an active buy-and-build strategy. Alongside the seasoned management team, we have supported their objectives to make Trustteam a leading player in IT services. We would like to thank all teams and are happy to pass the baton to a quality partner like Rivean Capital.” Arnaud Dufer, Managing Director and Head of France and Belgium in the Ardian Expansion team
 
“From the outset, we have been impressed with Trustteam’s track record of consistent organic growth, its value-creative buy-and build strategy and its entrepreneurial management team, creating the leading managed service provider for SMEs in Belgium and Northern France. In an increasingly complex IT environment, Trustteam offers an attractive proposition to fully unburden their SME customers. We are delighted to be partnering with Pieter, Stijn and the rest of the management team to further their growth ambitions, both organically and through strategic acquisitions.” Peter Hujoel, Partner at Rivean

“This transaction is another milestone for Rivean in Belgium and fits perfectly with our ‘local-for-local’ strategy to partner with ambitious and entrepreneurial management teams regarding the internationalization of their business.” Nicolas Linkens, Senior Partner at Rivean