International private equity firm, Cinven, has announced that their Sixth Cinven Fund has agreed to acquire One.com – a large European web hosting services provider established in Denmark in 2002. One.com has 270 employees and serves more than 1 million customers, with a focus on Northern Europe. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
The Cinven TMT sector team identified One.com as a compelling investment opportunity based on its direct experience in HEG (formerly Host Europe Group), a leading European provider of web hosting and domain services acquired by Cinven in August 2013. Cinven invested in HEG as a platform investment from which to successfully consolidate the fragmented European web hosting market. Cinven ultimately sold HEG to US-listed web hosting company GoDaddy in January 2017.
“We have more than 15 years’ experience in web hosting services and are today one of the leading companies in Europe in the sector,” said Jacob Jensen, founder and CEO of One.com. “The pride we have in our achievements to date is matched by our growth ambitions for the future and, in Cinven, we have a partner whose expertise in the sector and financial resources can support our compelling growth strategy.”
Cinven’s TMT sector team believes One.com is an attractive investment opportunity for the Sixth Cinven Fund given:
- The mass web hosting industry is growing steadily, driven by the structural increase in web-presence and usage of web applications amongst SMEs and SOHOs.
- One.com would have a well-recognized brand, a significant customer base which has been developed organically, and a scalable technology platform.
- Their business model would be attractive and resilient due to its diversified customer base and subscription model, resulting in highly recurring revenues, earnings visibility and strong cash flow generation.
- There would be opportunities to accelerate the growth of the business organically and through acquisition: Cinven’s strategy centers on helping One.com realize its growth potential drawing on its sector expertise and experience through its successful investment in HEG.
“We are very excited to invest in One.com alongside Jacob. It is a high quality business with an attractive brand and scalable technology platform, operating in a market with structural growth drivers,” said Thomas Railhac, Partner at Cinven. “This is a subsector we know well through Cinven’s successful investment in HEG in Fund 5, continuing to invest in both the organic growth story and targeted acquisitions.”
