Managed services biz Claranet adds £107m to war chest

Founder hints more acquisitions could be on the cards

Acquisition-hungry European managed services provider Claranet has drummed up £107m in a refinancing deal.

Charles Nasser, Claranet Group founder and CEO, said: “Our financing now extends to 2020 and achieves greater flexibility for us as we plan for further growth and the development of our products and services."

He added: "We now have greater financial support that strengthens our hand in responding to the growing consolidation of the managed services sector in Europe.”

In 2014, Claranet made a series of acquisitions, buying Portuguese managed hosting and applications provider Echiron, specialist French hosting provider Grita, and Dutch cloud services provider, NovaData.

In 2012, the company acquired cloud business Star in the UK and a Paris-based hosting company.

Its funders include Ares and Goldman Sachs, which provided £82m, and RBS, which provided up to £25m.

In June 2014, the company's European revenue rose 24 per cent to €175.8m (£127.4m).

According to its last Companies House filing, revenue in the UK fell by £400,000 to £36.4m for 2013/14.

That same year, it only made a profit of £465,000 in the UK, down from a £981,000 profit before tax in 2011/12. ®