Apax Partners to acquire Expereo from The Carlyle Group
Apax Partners, the Paris-based leading European private equity firm, has reached an agreement with global alternative asset manager, The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ:CG) to acquire 100% of Expereo. Apax Partners will invest alongside the company’s management team who will retain a stake in the company and will continue to lead the business. Expereo was a portfolio company of Carlyle Europe Technology Partners III (CETP), a pan-European fund focusing on buyout investments in telecoms, media and technology.
Financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed and completion remains subject to legal and regulatory approvals.
Expereo is one of the world’s largest managed internet network and cloud connectivity solutions providers, with more than 11,500 enterprise and government sites under management across 190+ countries. The company has a strong track record of performance, and has built long-term relationships with an impressive group of blue-chip clients and business partners.
Irwin Fouwels, CEO at Expereo said: “We are delighted at the opportunity to further accelerate the growth trajectory that Expereo has enjoyed since the Carlyle investment in 2014. With Apax Partners, we have a new partner who will continue to invest in Expereo’s strategic growth and development, through enhancement of our product portfolio, complementary acquisitions, and delivering ever higher standards of excellence in our global go-to-market execution and service. Global enterprises are rapidly adopting cloud services and software-defined networking technologies, as they move to embrace digital transformation. Expereo’s XDN portfolio is well positioned to help enterprises deliver on the promise of network agility to drive this digital transformation.”
Vladimir Lasocki, Managing Director at The Carlyle Group said: “Expereo is an incredible company that has delivered impressive growth since we invested in the business in 2014. Over the last four years, the company has developed new go-to-market channels, becoming a full connectivity provider with the ability to serve enterprise customers. Through acquisitions and substantial R&D investments, Expereo has enhanced its product portfolio and revenues and earnings have more than doubled in the last four years. It has been a real pleasure working with Irwin and the management team and we are confident Expereo will continue to thrive under Apax Partners’ ownership”.
Thomas de Villeneuve, Partner at Apax Partners, said: “We are extremely pleased to work with Irwin and his team to pursue and accelerate Expereo’s growth in the years to come. Expereo meets all the criteria we look for when investing: a strong management team with a clear strategic vision and the ability to execute it, highly differentiated and innovative value propositions and technologies and leading positions in the very attractive cloud services and software-defined networking global markets. Our investment also materialises our strong will to invest in leading Dutch companies.”
About Apax Partners
Apax Partners is a leading European private equity firm based in Paris. With more than 45 years of experience, Apax Partners provides long-term equity funding to build and strengthen world-class companies. Funds managed and advised by Apax Partners exceed €3.3 billion. These funds invest in fast-growing middle-market companies across four sectors of specialisation: TMT, Consumer, Healthcare and Services.
www.apax.fr