Carlyle sells Itconic via trade sale

Amedeo Goria
11 September 2017

Tweet
Facebook
LinkedIn
Google plus
Send to

The Carlyle Group has sold Spanish datacentre and cloud infrastructure services business Itconic to listed corporate Equinix.

The all-cash transaction was based on a €215m enterprise value, according to a statement. Carlyle reaped a 7x money return with 120% IRR, a source familiar with the matter told unquote".

The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and marks the first exit for the 2015-vintage Carlyle Europe Technology Partners III fund, which is now 50% deployed and has eight companies in its portfolio. According to the source, the fund's investment period will last until June 2020.

The vehicle launched in May 2014 with a €500m target and hit its €656m hard-cap a year later, with half of the commitments being sourced from existing LPs. The fund focuses on European technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) businesses.

Previous funding
Carlyle acquired the business, formerly known as Telvent Global Services, in April 2015 from French trade vendor Schneider Electric. The company was a non-core asset within the corporate, and the GP acquired a controlling stake, while the management team purchased a minority holding, the source said.

Company
Founded in 2000 and based in Madrid, Itconic develops carrier-neutral datacentres, offering connectivity and cloud-based infrastructure services across the Iberian market. The business generated €55.5m in revenues during the financial year ending in Q2 2017 and currently has 250 employees.

Itconic has five datacentres across the Iberian peninsula, with two located in Madrid, one in Barcelona, one in Seville, and one in Lisbon.

People
The Carlyle Group – Fernando Chueca (managing director).
Itconic – Faustino Jiménez (CEO).

Advisers
Company – Torch Partners (corporate finance); Garrigues (legal); EY (financial due diligence).