LDC, the leading mid-market private equity arm of Lloyds Banking Group, today announces that it has reached an agreement with BSkyB (Sky) over the proposed sale of its business-to-business telecommunications operation, Easynet Global Services, for £100 million.
The agreement to buy Easynet is subject to regulatory approval and a works council consultation in respect of certain Easynet employees.
Easynet is a specialist telecommunications business that designs and manages data networks for large businesses as well as providing managed hosting and video conferencing solutions around the globe. It also provides fibre services for smaller businesses in the UK and Holland.
LDC is backing David Rowe and his management team who have demonstrated a strong track record over a number of years. In addition, LDC has strengthened the board with the appointment of Hanif Lalani, former CEO of BT Global Services as a non-executive director.
As part of the deal, the assets and employees related to the corporate network management and hosting business will remain with Easynet. Sky and LDC will enter into a long-term supply agreement to grant Easynet Global Services continued access to the Sky’s national fibre network in the U.K, which continues to support the fast-growing Sky Broadband and Sky Talk services. BSkyB will also continue to be a business customer of Easynet.
The sector backdrop is very favourable, with aggregate expenditure on business data services across Europe expected to increase significantly driven by the accelerating trend of companies to outsource management and location of their servers and hosting. Easynet also operates in the most favourable sub-sectors of the business data service market both by product and delivery technology.
TMT, business and support services and BPO are all core areas of expertise within LDC, in particular for LDC London, its investment team based in the Capital.
David Rowe, Chief Executive Officer, Easynet, commented: “This is an excellent deal for Easynet. It provides us with additional capital to help fund the company’s next phase of development, give us access to LDC’s deep sector knowledge and experience and allows us to retain a business relationship with Sky and continued access to the company’s fibre network, which are all elements that will be very beneficial to our future growth and success.”
Daniel Sasaki, Director, LDC, commented: “TMT is a core area for LDC and Easynet is a great example of how we can deploy our deep sector knowledge and investment experience to identify excellent companies and great management teams and undertake value-added transactions. Easynet has a broad range of multinational clients and provides industry leading levels of services to them across the attractive data networking and managed hosting sectors. Management has a consistent track record of generating strong financial returns and we look forward to supporting David and his team as they guide Easynet on its next stage of development.”
NOTES TO EDITORS
Lloyds TSB Development Capital (‘LDC’) www.ldc.co.uk
LDC (Lloyds TSB Development Capital) is part of the Lloyds Banking Group and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.
LDC has, since 1981, completed over 400 investments, has ongoing interests in over 60 businesses across the UK.
LDC back ambitious management teams from UK-based companies seeking between £2m and £100m of equity for management buy-outs, institutional buy-outs or development capital transactions.
LDC invests in a broad range of sectors and has particular experience in financial services, healthcare, industrials, IT & software, leisure & media, retail & consumer, and support services.
LDC is the leading private equity company in the UK mid-market. Recent transactions include investments with 1ST – The Exchange, Ansa / Independent Inspections, Cranswick Pet & Aquatics, Modelzone, Nuclear Engineering Services Limited, Quantum Specials, and Snell Limited plus exits from ATP, Card Factory, ghd and Telecom Service Centres.
LDC has fourteen offices – Aberdeen, Amsterdam, Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Hong Kong, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Reading and Southampton.