Lewis Silkin advises Claranet on acquisition of Star

Lewis Silkin has advised long-standing client Claranet on its acquisition of STH Limited and its subsidiary Star Technology Services, in a deal valued at £55 million.The acquisition creates the largest mid-market provider of integrated hosting and network services in the UK and continental Europe.

Charles Nasser, CEO and Founder of the Claranet Group, stated “From a market and customer perspective, this is a great opportunity to bring together the experience and resources of two great companies to deliver a broader service portfolio to benefit our customers. It’s our mission to help our customers make the most of internet enabled technology, and the acquisition of Star will enable us to continue to deliver on this promise.” Operating under the Claranet brand, the enlarged group will have revenues of over £120 million, circa 700 staff and over 4,500 customers with operations in the UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain and Portugal.

Lewis Silkin also advised Claranet on the financing for the acquisition  provided by The Royal Bank of Scotland, Ares Capital Europe and Abry Partners.

The new business will have a service portfolio ranging from the data centre to the desktop. In addition to managed hosting and network services, which both Claranet and Star provide to many customers, Star customers will be able to take advantage of Claranet’s pan-European award-wining Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) offering, Virtual Data Centre, as well as advanced managed application hosting services. Star’s strength in Unified Communications, remote desktop and advance security services will complement Claranet’s existing portfolio. The combination of the two groups is also expected to generate significant synergies.

For this transaction, the Lewis Silkin team was led by Philip Lamb, head of Lewis Silkin’s Public Markets group which advises on mergers and acquisitions for both public and private companies, and he was supported by Corporate associates Stephen O’Mahony and Daria Evdokimova and Corporate Tax Associate, Simon Allum. Philip says “Lewis Silkin is pleased to have advised Claranet on such a strategically significant transaction central to its goal to become the clear European leader in the delivery of managed services. Furthermore, with both companies founded here in the UK, we are delighted to have played our part in a deal which celebrates a great British entrepreneurial success story”.

For more information please contact Boko Inyundo.

Boko Inyundo
Business Development and Marketing Manager
Tel: 020 7074 8457
Email: boko.inyundo@lewissilkin.com