Abry Partners sells Basefarm to trade

Digital operator Orange wholly acquired Basefarm through its enterprise subsidiary Orange Business Services.

Orange Business Services, which employs 1,600 cloud computing specialists, is currently growing at a rate of 15-20% each year. The acquisition of Basefarm will complement its existing product portfolio, particularly in terms of data management and multi-cloud services. The addition of Basefarm will also extend the geographical reach of Orange's services.

Basefarm appointed Jefferies to explore a sale, according to a report published in June by the Wall Street Journal.

The closing of the transaction is expected to take place during Q3 2018.

Previous funding
Nordic private equity firm Reiten & Co invested in Basefarm via its Reiten & Co Capital Partners VII fund in 2009, acquiring a 72% stake in a deal valuing the business at NOK 255m. The acquisition did not include a debt component.

In 2012, Reiten sold its stake in the business to US-based Abry, which represented the GP's first investment in Norway. The sale was limited to a few potential buyers, mostly comprising tech-oriented firms. 

Company
Founded in 2000, Basefarm is a cloud-based infrastructure specialist, a critical applications manager and data analysis provider. The company generated revenues of around €100m in 2017.

With headquarters in Oslo, the business also has a presence in in Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Austria and Germany, employing around 550 people overall.

People
Orange Business Services – Helmut Reisinger (CEO).
Basefarm – Fredrik Ohlsen (CEO).

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