Equistone sells Computerlinks for €230m

Kim Richters
28 August 2013

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Equistone Partners has exited Computerlinks, a distributor of IT security, network performance and internet technology solutions, to Arrow Electronics in a €230m trade sale.

Equistone originally bought Computerlinks alongside the management in 2008, taking the business private shortly afterwards. All shareholders sold their stakes in this latest transaction.

The initial investment was made via Equistone's Equistone Partners Europe III vehicle.

In what has already been a busy year for the private equity house, this divestment is the second deal struck in Germany this month, after the firm acquired a stake in Karl Eugen Fischer, a manufacturer of cutting systems for the tyre industry, from Equita. The investment at the beginning of August was made via the €1.5bn Equistone Partners Europe IV vehicle, which closed at the start of the year.

Also in August, Equistone bought Charles & Alice Group, a French fruit dessert maker, alongside existing investor CM-CIC Capital Finance in a secondary buyout.

Prior to this, Equistone wholly acquired real estate mortgage adviser Meilleurtaux.com from BPCE in April. One month earlier, the GP invested in the SBO of food machinery business Groupe Brétèche.

Equistone typically invests between €25-125m in businesses usually valued in the €50-300m range.

Company
Based in Munich, Computerlinks develops and distributes IT security software. It sells its products to systems integrators, resellers and original equipment manufacturers.

The manufacturers in Computerlink's portfolio include Blue Coat, Check Point, F5, Fortinet, Infoblox, Juniper, Proofpoint, RSA Security, Sophos, Trend Micro and Websense.

The firm currently has offices in 22 countries, 10 of which were opened in the last four years. It employs 720 staff. The business's turnover grew from €540m in 2008 to €940m in 2012.

People
Stephan Link is Computerlink's founder and CEO. Michael Bork, Oskar Schilcher and Marc Arens led the transaction for Equistone.

Advisers
Vendor – Excel Partners (Corporate finance); Ashurst (Legal).