German payments software firm Serrala put up for sale -sources

By Arno Schuetze and David French

FRANKFURT, May 11 (Reuters) - German payments software firm Serrala has been put up for sale as its private equity owner Waterland hopes to benefit from high sector valuations, people close to the matter said.

The Dutch buyout group, which is working with Deutsche Bank , has sent out information packages to prospective buyers for the financial automation software maker, which could be valued at significantly more than 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) on sales of 120 million euros this year, they said.

Payment technology firms have seen a surge in business as people switch to digital transactions, raising their values.

A stake in Serrala, which could be either a minority or majority, is now up for sale to fund investment in future growth following a string of acquisitions.

Waterland and Deutsche Bank declined to comment.

The fintech company makes software that manages all inbound and outbound payments, treasury processes as well as related data and documents in any IT landscape for corporate customers.

Serrala, which was rebranded in 2018 from Hanse Orga, employs more than 700 staff, supplying 2,800 customers including 25% of the Fortune Global 100 companies.

It competes with HighRadius, Billtrust, Bill.com, Kyriba and Fidelity National Information Services.

The company was founded in 1984 by software entrepreneur Hans Herbert Lindemann, the father of current Chief Executive Sven Lindemann. The family retained a stake of just below 50% when Waterland took a similar shareholding in 2016. ($1 = 0.8235 euros) (Reporting by Arno Schuetze; Editing by Alexander Smith)