Home / Deals / Advised Basefarm, a leading provider of complex managed hosting services in the Nordics and the Netherlands, on its sale to ABRY Partners

Advised Basefarm, a leading provider of complex managed hosting services in the Nordics and the Netherlands, on its sale to ABRY Partners
Dec 2012
acquired by
  • Sector: Cloud Managed Services
  • Deal Type: Private Equity Deals
  • Engagement type: Sellside
  • Size: <$200m
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Arma Partners is pleased to announce that it has acted as exclusive financial adviser to Reiten and Co. and the management of Basefarm AS (“Basefarm”) on the sale of the business to ABRY Partners (“ABRY”). Basefarm is a leading provider of complex managed hosting services with operations spanning Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands.

Arma Partners assisted the management and owners of Basefarm to realise their strategic objectives, drawing on our extensive experience in the European hosting space and our global cross border relationships with the most qualified buyers including ABRY. This transaction demonstrates the growing global investor interest in the European market for complex managed hosting solutions, which benefits from strong growth and high quality recurring revenues. Arma’s 17th transaction so far this calendar year, it also illustrates Arma Partners’ leadership in European datacentre and hosting M&A and our exceptionally strong track record in the European CMT space.

Basefarm is one of Northern Europe’s leading players in hosting large-scale internet solutions for major corporations and governments. With 270 employees, Basefarm delivers managed hosting and datacentre services to large customers who require the highest standards of quality for their internet infrastructure, applications availability, security and development. Based on a strong culture of delivery, flexibility and customer focus, Basefarm has over time developed a unique reputation for its superior service levels. http://www.basefarm.com

Reiten & Co is a leading private equity company in the Nordic region managing some 3.5 billion Norwegian kroner ($620m). The company has experience investing in several sectors and primarily invests in medium-sized Norwegian and Nordic companies. Basefarm is the 11th portfolio company they have sold, mainly through exchange listings and sales to industry players. http://www.reitenco.no

Founded in 1989, ABRY Partners is one of the most experienced and successful media, communications, business and information services focused private equity investment firms. They invest in high quality companies and partner with management to help build their businesses. Since its founding, ABRY has completed over $27.0 billion of leveraged transactions and other private equity, mezzanine or preferred equity placements, representing investments in approximately 450 properties http://www.abry.com.

– Basefarm is a leading provider of “complex” managed hosting services in Norway and Sweden

– Recent expansion into Dutch market

– Basefarm specialises in operating mission-critical IT services and is particularly successful in managing large-scale internet solutions

– Basefarm delivers services to large customers requiring the highest standards of quality

– Based on a strong culture of delivery, flexibility and customer focus, Basefarm has developed a unique reputation for its superior service levels

– ABRY Partners is one of the most experienced and successful media, communications, business and information services-focused private equity investment firms in North America and is increasingly active in Europe

– Since its founding, ABRY has completed over $27.0 billion of leveraged transactions and other private equity, mezzanine or preferred equity placements

– ABRY is a highly sophisticated and well-established investor in the hosting and colocation sector

– Given it’s sector expertise, growing European experience and portfolio of European data centre assets, ABRY was seen as the ideal partner for management to support the company’s future growth and drive its international expansion agenda

– Basefarm presented ABRY with a high quality platform to enter the Northern European managed hosting market

– Basefarm benefits from strong growth and high-quality recurring revenues. The company’s total revenue is consistently increasing by over 20% per year approaching c. NOK 400 million (USD 70m) in 2012

– Owning Datapipe, a US-based business very similar to Basefarm, ABRY was attracted by the potential synergies that could be derived through a partnership between the two companies or a merger

– With a view to leverage Basefarm as a regional consolidation platform, ABRY was very interested in the potential expansion strategy

– Basefarm had received an inbound expression of interest that triggered the process, and Arma was engaged to assist

– Arma contacted the most qualified strategic buyers to determine interest in the business

– In parallel, Arma worked extensively with management to articulate the company’s growth strategy and corresponding financial plan

– Once ABRY emerged as the most attractive bidder for the business, Arma, together with the management team, worked towards a very tight and compact timeline to complete the deal

– Overall, Arma Partners assisted the management and owners of Basefarm to realise their strategic objectives, drawing on Arma’s extensive experience in the European hosting space and global cross-border relationships with the most qualified buyers, including ABRY

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