Serent Capital has signed an agreement to sell Commissions, Inc. to publicly-traded Fidelity National Financial.
Commissions, Inc. (CINC) provides a software platform that is used by residential real estate agents and agent teams for customer relationship management, lead generation, and lead management. The company has more than 1,500 customers who collectively have closed more than 170,000 residential real estate transactions over the last twelve months. CINC was founded in 2011 by its CEO Duane LeGate and CTO Brian O’Neal. The company is headquartered in Marietta, GA (www.commissionsinc.com).
Fidelity National Financial (NYSE: FNFV) is organized into two groups, FNF Group and FNF Ventures Group. FNF Group is a provider of title insurance, technology and transaction services to the real estate and mortgage industries. FNF Group is the nation’s largest title insurance company through its title insurance underwriters: Fidelity National Title, Chicago Title, Commonwealth Land Title, Alamo Title and National Title of New York. FNF Ventures is the private equity arm of the business and holds majority and minority equity interests in a number of companies including American Blue Ribbon, a restaurant holding company (www.abrholdings.com); Ceridian HCM, a provider of outsourced human resource services (www.ceridian.com); and Digital Insurance, an employee benefits-only agency serving small and mid-size businesses (www.digitalinsurance.com). Fidelity National Financial is headquartered in Jacksonville (www.fnf.com).
“To this point, CINC’s strong revenue and customer growth has been largely organic, with minimal sales force efforts needed,” said FNF Chairman, William Foley. “We plan to leverage FNF’s title sales force to proactively cross-sell the CINC product suite to our leading customers.”
“We look at everything from a 360-degree perspective,” said Mr. LeGate. “Joining FNF is a huge win for everyone involved. Our clients get fresher, richer data with more access to actionable home buyers and sellers. Our employees get the capabilities and backing of a Fortune 500 company to help accelerate our growth. Most importantly, we are perfectly aligned culturally and know that we will be able to continue running the business as we always have, but with vastly increased resources.”
Serent Capital, which acquired CINC in April 2015, invests from $10 million to $50 million in service businesses with revenues of $10 million to $100 million and EBITDAs up to $15 million. Transaction types include buyouts, recapitalizations and growth capital. The firm is based in San Francisco (www.serentcapital.com).
FirstMerit Bank (www.firstmerit.com) provided senior financing and Five Points Capital – formerly BB&T Capital Partners – provided mezzanine debt in support of the transaction. Five Points is led by its four managing partners David Townsend, Martin Gilmore, Christopher Jones, and Thomas Westbrook. The firm is headquartered in Winston-Salem, NC (www.fivepointscapital.com).
Los Angeles-based Cody Peak Advisors (www.codypeakadv.com) served as the financial advisor to Dr. Smoothie Brands.
© 2016 Private Equity Professional • 8-2-16
