Finnish Software Company Basware Explores Sale

Aaron Kirchfeld, Bloomberg News

Light trails from network switches illuminate fiber optic cables, center, and copper Ethernet cables inside a communications room at an office in London, U.K., on Monday, May 21, 2018. The Department of Culture, Media and Sport will work with the Home Office to publish a white paper later this year setting out legislation, according to a statement, which will also seek to force tech giants to reveal how they target abusive and illegal online material posted by users. , Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Basware, the Finnish software company backed by hedge fund Arrowgrass Capital Partners, is exploring a sale after receiving a takeover approach, according to people familiar with the matter.

Basware is holding deliberations over terms including price, said the people, who asked not to be identified because talks are private. The identity of the suitor couldn’t be immediately learned. Discussions about a sale of the company, whose software helps with purchasing, invoicing and payments, may not lead to a transaction, the people said.

Basware, currently valued at 333 million euros ($377 million), has seen its shares drop almost 50 percent, to 23.10 euros apiece, over the last 12 months. During that period they’ve risen as high as 47.50 euros and fallen as low as 19.95 euros. The company has focused on expanding its cloud services to boost revenue.

A representative for Basware couldn’t be immediately reached for comment outside regular business hours.

A purchase of Basware would add to a surge in software deals that have totaled $170 billion this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. IBM agreed last month to its biggest-ever acquisition when it sealed a $33 billion deal for software maker Red Hat Inc. to catch up in the cloud. SAP SE, Europe’s biggest technology company, agreed this week to buy Qualtrics International Inc. for $8 billion.

Arrowgrass, the hedge fund started by former Deutsche Bank AG traders Henry Kenner and Nicholas Niell, owns about 25 percent of Basware, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

To contact the reporter on this story: Aaron Kirchfeld in London at akirchfeld@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Aaron Kirchfeld at akirchfeld@bloomberg.net, Elizabeth Fournier, Ben Scent