Palatine invests in Acora

Katharine Hidalgo
08 April 2020

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Palatine Private Equity has invested in IT service Acora.

The asset was sold in an auction that saw Inflexion Private Equity and LDC reach the second round of bidding, according to Unquote sister publication Mergermarket.

Acora was expecting an EBITDA run rate of more than £2m for the financial year ending in October 2019, according to projections in its latest financial statement.

Palatine is currently investing from its third-generation fund, which closed on £220m in June 2015 and was 80% deployed as of December 2019.

The company intends to follow a buy-and-build strategy following the investment. Acora CEO David Rabson said in a statement that the company expects to make acquisitions in 2020.

Shawbrook Bank provided debt funding.

Previous funding
Rabson acquired the business from management in 2008.

In 2017, Acora merged with Plan-Net, an owner-managed IT support and services company; and in 2019, it acquired Just Computing, a managed IT service.

Company
Acora provides a range of IT support and cloud services to mid-market organisations. Its service range includes a service desk through to cloud applications and infrastructure. The company is a Microsoft Gold Partner.

Headquartered in Burgess Hill and founded in 1989, the company records revenues of around £45m. It employs 300 people in three service centres in West Sussex and the West Midlands, and a sales office in Central London, as well as satellite offices across mainland Europe and the US.

People
Palatine Private Equity – Toby Dickin (partner).
Acora – David Rabson (CEO).

Advisers
Equity – Gateleys (legal); Raymond James (corporate finance); Armstrong (commercial due diligence); RSM (financial due diligence, tax); Xaeus Blue (IT due diligence); Cyberfort (IT due diligence); Spectrum Corporate Finance (debt advisory).
Vendor – BDO (corporate finance).