Darwin in £50m Attenda SBO

Greg Gille
24 August 2011

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Darwin Private Equity has backed the ТЃ50m management buyout of UK-based hosting services business Attenda from M/C Partners.

The management team, led by CEO Mark Fowle, took a stake in the business. M/C Partners, which invested in the company in 2002, fully exited Attenda alongside other minority shareholders.

Darwin invested via the £217m Darwin Private Equity I fund, which closed in 2008. It initially approached the company 18 months ago, attracted by the growing cloud computing market and Attenda's know-how in this sector. The company's blue-chip clients and resilient business model – with contracts running for three- to five-year periods – were also considered attractive factors.

More than eight years after M/C Partners' investment, Attenda's management felt the timing was right to introduce a new shareholder. It therefore started talks with a small handful of private equity houses around five months ago, with Investec acting as an intermediary.

Darwin aims to support a widening of Attenda's range of services and will look to expand its data centre capabilities. Growth via strategic acquistions is also being considered.

Debt
HSBC and Investec provided a debt package to finance this transaction.

Previous funding
Attenda secured a £9m funding round in 2002 led by M/C Ventures. Additional funding in this round also came from existing investors UBS Capital, Phoenix Equity Partners and Tarrant Venture Partners. The investment brought the overall amount raised by Attenda since inception to £29m.

Attenda sold its co-location subsidiary IFL to Telecity for £21m in 2010.

Company
Founded in 1997, Attenda is a provider of hosting services to UK enterprises. It hosts and manages its clients' "mission critical" applications, aiming to provide higher availability and systems flexibility at lower cost.

Staines-based Attenda employs in excess of 200 staff and posted a £28.5m turnover for 2010.

People
Nick Jordan led the transaction for Darwin. Mark Fowle is CEO of Attenda.

Advisers
Equity – Harris Williams (Corporate finance); Travers Smith (Legal); Grant Thornton (Financial due diligence); Deloitte (Financial due diligence).
Company – Investec (Corporate finance); Olswang (Legal); Grant Thornton (Tax).