HIG Capital has reached an agreement to divest Project Informatica, concluding a multi-year investment that transformed the Italian IT services provider into a €450 million revenue platform through acquisitions and organic growth.
EMK Capital will acquire the business in a transaction pending regulatory clearance. Management and HIG Capital will retain equity stakes in the combined entity, signaling continued confidence in the company’s growth trajectory beyond the ownership transition.
The deal represents a profitable outcome for HIG Capital, which orchestrated seven add-on acquisitions to build WeAreProject Group from a single IT infrastructure provider into a national platform serving over 700 employees. Revenue increased fourfold under HIG Capital’s stewardship, according to executives familiar with the investment.
Buy-and-Build Strategy Yields Results for HIG Capital
Miami-headquartered HIG Capital deployed a classic consolidation playbook after acquiring Project Informatica, targeting complementary businesses in cybersecurity, managed services, and cloud infrastructure. The resulting platform now delivers Security Operations Center capabilities, Network Operations Center services, and AI-powered infrastructure management to small and medium enterprises alongside public sector clients.
Founded in 1993 by Sami Mnaymneh and Tony Tamer, HIG Capital manages $70 billion across private equity, real estate, infrastructure, and credit strategies. The firm has completed more than 400 platform investments globally, with a particular emphasis on middle-market roll-up opportunities in fragmented service sectors.
Giovanni Guglielmi, managing director at HIG Capital, characterized the exit as delivering “outstanding financial return” for investors while preserving ongoing involvement through the reinvestment structure. Raffaele Legnani, who heads HIG Capital’s Italy office, emphasized Project Informatica’s evolution into what he termed a “benchmark player” in the country’s information and communications technology market.
Alberto Ghisleni founded Project Informatica in 1990 and continues as chief executive following more than three decades building the business. He credited HIG Capital with accelerating the acquisition program and enhancing technical capabilities across the enlarged group.
European IT Services Consolidation Continues
The transaction adds to sustained private equity interest in European technology services, where fragmented markets and recurring revenue models attract investment capital. EMK Capital, which operates from offices spanning Amsterdam to Singapore, focuses on businesses with unrealized value in sectors experiencing consolidation pressure.
Fabio Cadeddu, an EMK Capital partner based in Milan, described the investment as aligned with the firm’s thesis on Italian IT services market dynamics. The partnership structure, which maintains both seller and founder equity participation, suggests an expectation of additional value creation beyond the current exit valuation.
For HIG Capital, the Project Informatica divestiture follows a series of European deals executed throughout 2025. The firm acquired Avanta Salud, a Spanish occupational health provider, and ITH Group, a UK pharmaceutical services company, while completing the purchase of France Workwear from Rentokil Initial. HIG Capital’s real estate division separately invested in Norwegian logistics properties and launched an Italian self-storage platform operating as Boxengo.
These transactions reflect HIG Capital’s continued deployment of capital across European middle markets, with particular attention to business services, healthcare, and technology infrastructure. Markus Noe-Nordberg leads the firm’s European middle-market private equity team from offices in Hamburg, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Milan, and Paris.
Portfolio Rebalancing Accelerates
The timing of the Project Informatica exit coincides with broader portfolio management activity across HIG Capital’s holdings. The firm recently merged Converge Technology Solutions with Mainline Information Systems, creating Pellera Technologies with approximately $4 billion in combined annual revenue. That transaction consolidated two North American IT services providers under unified leadership to pursue larger enterprise contracts.
HIG Capital has also expanded infrastructure capabilities through separate vehicle strategies, including a newly launched GP Solutions Platform targeting secondary transactions in continuation funds. The firm recruited a four-person team from Morgan Stanley to lead that initiative, which aims to provide liquidity solutions to other private equity managers.
Industry observers note that middle-market IT services platforms remain attractive exit opportunities as larger technology firms and financial sponsors seek established customer relationships and recurring revenue streams. Project Informatica’s combination of public sector contracts and private enterprise clients provides diversified revenue sources that typically command premium valuations in current market conditions.
The WeAreProject Group offers services spanning the full IT infrastructure stack, combining hardware distribution with ongoing managed services contracts. This dual revenue model—transaction-based equipment sales alongside subscription-style service agreements—has proven resilient through economic cycles and supports predictable cash flow generation.
EMK Capital declined to disclose financial terms of the acquisition. The transaction remains subject to customary regulatory approvals, with completion expected in the coming months.
