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Interoute bags private equity funding to support datacentre growth

Cloud services giant plans to use private equity funding to support its M&A activity and push ahead with its datacentre growth plans

Caroline Donnelly
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Published: 31 Mar 2015 12:40

London-based Interoute is looking to build out its datacentre network and portfolio of cloud services, having secured private equity backing from two new investors.

Aleph Capital Partners and Crestview Partners have embarked on a share purchase agreement to buy out Interoute minority shareholder Emirates International Telecommunications.

The investment firms will own a 30% stake in Interoute when the transaction closes, which is expected to be by the end of April 2015.

At the time of writing, the value of the deal had not been disclosed.

Growing datacentre footprint

Interoute claims to operate the largest cloud technology platform in Europe, spanning 12 datacentres and 31 collocation facilities.

The investment will be used to increase its datacentre footprint, expand its portfolio of cloud services and – in turn – build out its business further in the UK, USA and Europe through acquisitions.

Read more about Interoute

The company hasn’t shied away from hitting the acquisition trail in the past, having snapped up datacentre owner Vtesse in October 2014 to extend the reach of its European fibre network.

Interoute CEO Gareth Williams said the company’s overall aim is to increase the company’s revenue, which totalled €417m (£302m) in its most recent set of financial results.

“Interoute seeks to more than double its revenues in the next five years, underpinned by demand for its enterprise networked cloud services,” he said.

“Adding new markets, capabilities, and additional customers to experience these services will be the focus of the acquistions and we are thrilled to have found ambitious, tech-savvy partners who want to help us reach that goal.”

Brian Cassidy, a partner at US-based Crestview Partners, said there are already acquisition opportunities emerging in the technology market that Interoute should be looking to pounce on.

“The company is poised to capitalise on both the increasing demand for bandwidth and cloud-based services,” he said.

“We see a lot of consolidation opportunities in the fibre and cloud markets in Europe, which Interoute should participate in.”

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