Six Degrees love triangle: Final bids for data outfit due tomorrow

Vulture capitalists vie to tuck cash into firm's garters

Two suitors vying to acquire Brit managed services and data centre provider Six Degrees have until tomorrow to lodge a winning bid.

The Penta Capital-owned business was put on the market by corporate financier DC Advisory in February, as El Chan exclusively revealed.

The private equity backer is looking to at least treble the £60m investment it made in 2011 when it backed CEO Alastair Mills and his team to lead a roll-up in the mid-market managed services space.

The list of potential acquirers had been whittled down to four by last month, but cloud hosting firm Pulsant was the only trade buyer remaining – the rest were venture capitalists.

A full and final offer is due to be filed with DC Advisory by 10 June but a sales purchase agreement is already established, meaning the legal Ts&Cs are set. As a result the deal should be wrapped up within weeks.

Six Degrees was created via the acquisition of data centre provider UKSolutions, connectivity box NetworkFlow and voice seller Protel. It has since subsumed seven firms including BIS.

In fiscal 2014 – the last number for Six Degrees filed at Companies House – the business turned over £69m, up from £51.5m in the prior year. EBITDA was £15m but net losses were £6.39m, largely due to heavy interest repayments.

Six Degrees isn’t the only managed services player getting ready to sell. Adapt is also coming onto the market later this year.

Six Degrees refused to comment. ®