Cloud Hosting

Lincoln-based Divitias Bidco, the sole parent of GCI, is to acquire Nasstar in a 79.4 million deal.

Bidco was incorporated on 27 April 2018 for the purposes of making corporate acquisitions. In May 2018 it acquired GCI pursuant to a management buy-out. Bidco is an indirect subsidiary of the Mayfair Funds.

Nasstar, which is headquartered in Telford with regional offices in Northampton, Bournemouth and an office in Auckland, specialises in building bespoke cloud hosted services. Nasstar was founded in 1998, admitted to AIM in December 2005 and acquired e-know.net Limited in a reverse takeover in January 2014, Kamanchi in July 2014, VESK in October 2015 and Modrus in September 2016.

A statement reads: Bidco believes that Nasstar is a leading IT services provider with strong cloud hosting solutions, an impressive portfolio of services and an attractive customer base.

Bidco, supported by Mayfair, believes Nasstar and GCI have highly complementary strategies and that the Acquisition will enable the businesses to benefit substantially from increased purchasing power, deeper technical expertise, broader products / service offerings and wider cross-selling opportunities across an expanded customer base.

Bidco believes that Nasstar would substantially benefit from the scale of the business of the Enlarged Group and the proposed acquisition is in the long-term interests of Nasstar.

Commenting on the Acquisition,Nick Bate, the Chairman of Nasstar, said:Nasstar has performed well since the Reverse Takeover and I would like to reiterate the Boards appreciation of the effort of the management team and all Nasstar employees in this time.

The Board believes this is a compelling offer for Nasstar Shareholders, at a significant premium for those who invested at the point of the Reverse Takeover, and at a fair valuation. We believe the acquisition is in the best interests of all our stakeholders, and unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favour of the resolutions relating to the Acquisition.

Commenting on the Acquisition, Wayne Churchill, the Chief Executive Officer of GCI , said:We are very pleased that the Board of Nasstar is recommending our cash offer. The transaction is highly complementary for both businesses and we are encouraged to see that a large percentage of Nasstar shareholders have given undertakings to accept the offer.

We have a deep understanding of and great respect for the customer-centric business that the team at Nasstar has built. By working together we can combine our expertise to enhance our offering for customers through a larger pool of technical experts with different and complementary capabilities, and provide a wider portfolio of products and services. The combination of the two companies will create a business with exciting, long-term prospects and we look forward to working closely with Nasstar to deliver for all of our stakeholders.

More here:
Bidco to acquire cloud firm after Boards agree on 79.4m deal - East Midlands Business Link