Claranet has acquired three IT services providers in the UK (Sec-1), France (Oxalide), and Portugal (ITEN Solutions), significantly increasing its revenues and service capabilities. Claranet has also completed a refinancing exercise, which provides the company with long-term financing and an incremental committed acquisition facility of ?80million, and taken on new minority shareholders, including Tikehau Capital, who has invested alongside existing shareholders.
The three new acquisitions bring additional Security, DevOps, Systems Integration and IT services capabilities to the Claranet Group and cement its position as one of the largest independent providers of cloud and managed services in Western Europe and Brazil. The expanded Group has annualised revenues of ?310million (ˆ360million), more than 1,800 employees, and over 6,500 customers, and an international footprint in eight countries on two continents (UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, The Netherlands, and Brazil).
Based in Leeds, UK, Sec-1 is a security solutions provider. Established in 2001, the company provides penetration testing and vulnerability assessments for applications and infrastructure, firewalls and malware protection, and security training services. Sec-1, which has a turnover of ?6million and approximately 60 members of staff, adds significantly to Claranet’s security expertise. Its founders, Matt Hawnt and Gary O’Leary-Steele, will remain with Claranet and will work with the wider senior management team to continue to grow the business and take its services to Claranet’s customers in the UK and across Europe.
French DevOps and cloud specialist Oxalide will reinforce Claranet’s capacity to deploy and manage critical web applications. Established in 2003, the company already has a turnover of ˆ17.5million (?15million), and its 95 staff serve customers ranging from Canal+ to Direct Energie. Oxalide’s management team will remain in situ and will develop the company’s proposition whilst benefiting from the financial stability and an enlarged portfolio with Claranet.
Founded in Portugal in 2013 through a merger of two of the largest companies in the Portuguese ICT sector, ITEN Solutions has annual revenues of ˆ80million (?69million) and 360 staff. With this acquisition Claranet has become one of the largest IT services providers in Portugal and aims to help its customers to take advantage of new technologies.
The refinancing has been provided by the following financial institutions: ABN AMRO, Bank of Ireland, HSBC, Natixis, Partners Group, The Royal Bank of Scotland, Soci?t? G?n?rale and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, replacing current debt suppliers.
Charles Nasser, founder and CEO of the Claranet Group, commented: “Claranet’s organic growth, combined with acquisitions, has meant we have established a significant operation in the managed IT services market at the European level, which we believe puts us ahead of many of our competitors in the region. These latest acquisitions represent a significant step forward for Claranet, confirming our market-leading position in France and Portugal and boosting our Group-wide security and application management capabilities for the benefit of our customers.
“We’re pleased that investment management firm Tikehau Capital has acquired a minority stake in Claranet, which along with our refinancing is a great endorsement of our strategy. The refinancing, and these latest acquisitions, means that we are even better positioned to meet the opportunities and challenges of a rapidly evolving technology services sector. We expect to see a continued consolidation of the European managed services market over the next 24-months and we are on a strong footing in all major markets in Western Europe to take advantage of this opportunity to help our customers do amazing things.”
