KKR and Towerbrook invest €250m in OVH

KKR and Towerbrook acquired a minority stake in OVH, while the Klaba family retains a majority stake and will continue to lead its strategy alongside OVH management. 

The company said in a statement the capital increase will allow OVH to invest €1.5bn over the next five years, aiming to strengthen its position first in Europe and eventually elsewhere, starting with the US and later Singapore and Australia. 

The company's growth strategy will involve opening new data centres, taking their total number from 17 to 26.

The tech company, which thanks to this funding round is thought to have reached a valuation in excess of €1bn, is hoping to achieve a €1bn turnover by 2020/21.

Other interested parties for the round included Warburg Pincus, Goldman Sachs and BPI France, various media sources have reported. OVH is opening its capital to external investors for the first time, having so far been financing its development through debt, mostly provided by BNP Paribas.

Company
Based in Roubaix and led by founder Octave Klaba, OVH is an internet service provider offering dedicated servers, shared and cloud hosting, domain registration and telephony services. OVH currently operates 15 data centres with 250,000 machines, servicing customers across Europe, as well as in the US, Canada and Tunisia. The company was founded in 1999 and predicts a €320m turnover for 2016.

People
OVH – Octave Klaba (CEO, founder); Laurent Allard (CEO).
Towerbrook – Karim Saddi (managing director).
KKR – Jean-Pierre Saad (director, EMEA).

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• Topics
• Expansion
• France
• Technology
• France
• KKR
• Towerbrook Capital Partners
• BPI France