FORUM Family Office acquires 100% of ab-data

FORUM Family Office ("FORUM"), through its industry holding company FORUM Software Mittelstandsholding SE, has acquired 100% of the shares in ab-data GmbH & Co. KG, which is based in Velbert, Germany.

ab-data was founded on September 28, 1976 by Horst Bremkamp and has been managed by the second generation, Dr. Markus Bremkamp, since 2018. In 2024, the company achieved a turnover of around € 6.0 million with approx. 170 customers from the public sector, which corresponds to a market share of approx. 4%.

The company specializes in financial software for local authorities and is developing the new VOIS|Finanzwesen as an exclusive partner. VOIS as a platform enables local authorities and districts to replace the historically grown fragmentation of their software architecture with an integrated solution with a standardized, modern user interface and uniform database structure. Around 60% of all German local authorities already have a VOIS platform.

FORUM's continuation concept envisages the completion of the development of the VOIS financial system and, from 2027, active marketing with a focus on municipalities with a VOIS platform. Otherwise, the existing strategy will be continued, in particular Dr. Bremkamp will remain Managing Director and the location with currently approx. 90 employees - including approx. 50 developers - will be retained. Comment from Dr. Bremkamp:

"Germany's digitalization demands increasingly holistic, process-oriented thinking. As ab-data, we therefore have to move away from our decades of successful thinking in specialist office categories. We are therefore very pleased to have become the exclusive development partner for finance on VOIS, Germany's leading IT platform. FORUM offers us all the prospect of even more integration, standardization and scale. We look forward to achieving our goals together."

FORUM invests the assets of a Munich family in medium-sized companies as part of succession solutions. FORUM's principles in the area of family equity are: permanent, decentralized, entrepreneurial - giving founders a sustainable alternative to financial investors. This approach has already convinced more than 40 entrepreneurs to entrust FORUM with their life's work.

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