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Omnes’ Exclusive Networks bolts on WhiteGold

  • Ellie Pullen
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Omnes Capital portfolio company Exclusive Networks has acquired WhiteGold Solutions, an Australian value-added distributor (VAD) of IT security and storage.

Exclusive secured an additional €25m in debt from the ICG Senior Debt Partner fund, managed by Intermediate Capital Group (ICG), for the acquisition and continued development of the business.

This follows the €60m that ICG Senior Debt Partner provided to the business in September last year for the company's acquisitive growth strategy.

Exclusive has acquired the business to expand into the Asia Pacific market. The acquisition marks Exclusive's first outside of the EMEA region.

Previous funding
Omnes (then Crédit Agricole Private Equity) acquired a 69% stake in Exclusive in August 2010 in a deal that valued the business between €30-50m.

Exclusive's management, Edmond de Rothschild Investment Partners – which had previously provided the business with €1m in return for a 33% stake in June 2007 – and Socadif also took part in the transaction. CIC Finance, BNP Paribas, Banque Populaire and Societe Generale provided a debt package.

In February 2013, Omnes provided the business with a further €50m in acquisition finance, designed to fund at least six future bolt-ons for Exclusive. This was followed by a refinancing in September last year with ICG, which provided a €60m senior debt package.

Exclusive's equity backers committed €12m in fresh equity in conjunction with the refinancing, of which Omnes provided €6.7m.

In November last year, Exclusive acquired Secureway, a Dubai-based distributor for the IT security and mobile sectors.

Company
Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Sydney, WhiteGold is a VAD specialising in security, storage, networking and infrastructure for the IT industry in New Zealand and Australia.

The company claims to be growing at a rate of 60% per year.

People
Olivier Breittmayer is the chairman and CEO of Exclusive, while Dominic Whitehand is the managing director of WhiteGold. Philippe Zurawski is a partner at Omnes; he represented Omnes on the deal alongside investment manager Mikaël Schaller.

Advisers
Aquirer – King & Wood Mallesons SJ Berwin, Jérôme Jouanneaud, Nicola Charlston (Legal); PwC, Didier Sidois, Andrew Parker (Financial due diligence).
Debt – DLA Piper, Maud Manon (Legal).

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