European private equity firm Cinven has bought Host Europe Group from another private equity company, Montagu Private Equity. Host Europe Group is one of the largest privately-owned web hosting provider companies in Europe. Cinven will pay $667 million (438 million UK pounds) to acquire the web hosting company.
Headquartered in the UK, Host Europe Group has around 600 employees, with web hosting operations in the UK, Germany and Spain. Through different brands, including 123-reg, Webfusion, Heart Internet and Host Europe the web hosting company offers its 1.5 million customers an end-to-end product suite including domain registration, application hosting, cloud hosting and managed server hosting. Most of the company’s revenues are generated in the UK and Germany.
Montagu Private Equity in its turn bought Host Europe Group in October 2010 from Oakley Capital Private Equity LP, in a deal that was said to value the business then at 222 million pounds. Hosting Journalist wants to congratulate Montagu with the deal, as the doubling of its investment value within three years is a remarkable milestone to achieve.
‘Dominate the European Hosting Market’
Cinven is a European private equity firm, founded in 1977, with offices in Guernsey, London, Frankfurt, Paris, Milan, Luxembourg and Hong Kong. The firm acquires successful, high-quality companies and works with them to help them grow and develop, using proven value creation strategies.
Commenting on the purchase, Thomas Vollrath, CEO of Host Europe Group, said: “We have more than 16 years’ experience in the web hosting industry, and the Host Europe Group is renowned for providing high quality hosting products with comprehensive technical support to our many customers in Europe. We have grown significantly through a combination of organic growth and acquisitions – all of which have extended our customer base, hosting capabilities and industry expertise. We look forward to our new partnership with Cinven which will enable us to further dominate the European market and consolidate our Group strength.”
David Barker, a Partner at Cinven, added: “Host Europe operates an attractive business model enjoying double digit growth rates and very high levels of earnings visibility. Its market position has been secured through investment in its infrastructure, marketing and the leadership team, and these features, in combination with strong structural growth in its markets, makes Host Europe a compelling investment opportunity.”
