With this strategic transaction, the GRIVEL family wished to provide Ciril GROUP with additional resources to accelerate its growth trajectory, by continuing to strengthen its offerings from a technological and functional point of view, working to consolidate its existing markets and exploring new international opportunities. The objective is clear: to build a sovereign European champion with predominantly French capital around the GRIVEL family, serving the public sector and its territories, while continuing to build on Ciril GROUP's values, its strong corporate culture committed to its customers and partners, and its constant drive for innovation.

Founded in 1978 and headquartered in Villeurbanne, Ciril GROUP develops software solutions such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) for finance, human resources (HRIS), technical services (CMMS) and citizen services, as well as geographic information systems (GIS) and secure, sovereign cloud solutions. Over 2,500 customers, including local authorities, public bodies and private companies, have opted for these robust, modular and interoperable solutions. A key player in the public sector in France with cities, inter-municipalities and regions, Ciril GROUP is gradually strengthening its presence with private customers, both in France and internationally.

Bpifrance, a long-standing partner of Ciril GROUP and associated with the project right from the start of the GRIVEL family's reflections on opening up its capital, brings its legitimacy as a public player and reinforces the company's sovereign roots; Carlyle, a global investment firm with a strong historical presence in Europe, has been chosen by the GRIVEL family and Ciril GROUP's management team to build a European champion in the software and cloud industry, by strengthening the company's presence in the French and European public sector, developing its hosted software offering, and above all internationalizing its GIS platform and carrying out external growth operations in strategic sectors.

Amaël GRIVEL, Chairman of Ciril GROUP, comments:

"Over the past decades, thanks to the commitment of our employees and the trust of our customers, we have invested heavily and transformed Ciril GROUP into a modern, scalable software platform. Our sovereign infrastructures and product portfolio give us a differentiating positioning, and we see many opportunities to better serve our customers, accelerate the adoption of our hosted software and make targeted acquisitions.

With Bpifrance's legitimacy in the eyes of the public sector and all French companies, coupled with Carlyle's expertise in software and the internationalization of companies, my family and I are reaffirming our ambition to see the group continue its growth trajectory in the future for the benefit of all Ciril GROUP stakeholders."

Rémi GRIVEL, Managing Director of Ciril GROUP, continues:

"We are ideally positioned to become the sovereign European champion with majority French capital around our family and France's leading local authority player, Bpifrance, to best serve public sector players and our territories while capitalizing on the values that have made us successful. At the same time, Carlyle will help us to accelerate our international development thanks to its deployment and knowledge of our sector, and thus make Ciril GROUP a European champion."

Jérôme de Bucy, Investment Director at Bpifrance, adds:

"This transaction is fully in line with the theses pursued by Bpifrance, in support of the modernization and digitization of French public services, very well embodied by Ciril GROUP's products and solutions, acclaimed by its customers. This transaction illustrates Bpifrance's commitment to supporting sovereign technology leaders. We are delighted to be partnering with the GRIVEL family in the development of Ciril GROUP, which will result in our acquisition of a stake in France's leading provider of software solutions for local authorities in the fields of finance, HR, public services, technical services, GIS and the sovereign cloud. We are convinced that Carlyle will bring to the table its sectoral and international expertise, which we believe is ideally suited to building this European leader.

Charles Villet, Managing Director of the Carlyle Europe Technology Partners investment team, adds:

"Ciril GROUP, a leading software platform, is at the heart of the public sector's digital transformation. We are proud to have been chosen, alongside the GRIVEL family and Bpifrance, to support the management team in its plan to significantly accelerate Ciril GROUP's growth, notably through product innovation, international investment and future acquisitions. Like Carlyle's technology investments in France, and more broadly in Europe, Ciril GROUP will benefit from our sector expertise and our ability to support international development.

The transaction is expected to close in the final quarter of 2025, subject to the usual regulatory approvals.