Bridgepoint
Regent advises Mark Howling and Bridgepoint Development Capital on the acquisition of Lumison.
Lumison, the UK provider of connectivity, hosting and managed IT services, has been acquired by Bridgepoint Development Capital for an undisclosed sum.
The company, based in Edinburgh and London, and with 2,500 clients throughout the UK, was established in 1995 and operates in the growing managed data centre services and hosting market. It typically provides managed services where it acts as the outsourced partner responsible for managing clients’ IT infrastructure, hosting critical IT hardware in secure physical facilities, providing “cloud” based infrastructure services and offering network managed services which allow clients to connect securely to the internet and other locations.
The transaction will see Bridgepoint Development Capital acquire a majority stake in the company as a first step in building a larger IT services group focussed on serving the high growth SME market. Mark Howling, formerly a Senior Executive with Computacenter plc and CEO of a previous Bridgepoint investment in the sector, will become Executive Chairman of the business, working with the existing management team to grow the business both organically and by serial acquisition.
Aydin Kurt-Elli, Founder of Lumison, said: “We now have the firepower available to expand and accelerate the range of services we can offer our loyal customer base thanks to this timely and strategically important development for our business”.
“Our aim in acquiring Lumison, an already highly regarded, profitable company, is for it to become the platform for further growth to which we can add, through selective acquisition, a broader and deeper range of services” added Alan Payne, Partner of Bridgepoint Development Capital.
The UK IT services sector, currently worth over £40 billion and growing at 5% per annum, is polarised between major players and a group of very small services providers. The planned ‘buy and build’ programme for Lumison aims to create a fully integrated, high quality, medium-sized services provider that can provide the full range of IT and network services a customer needs, and offers a serious alternative, according to Mark Howling.
He explained: “ There are very few medium-sized service providers capable of offering clients one trusted partner to meet all of their IT and networking needs which is what customers say they want. The acquisition of Lumison gives us a real opportunity to build such a player.”
Regent Partners LLP acted as exclusive Corporate Finance advisor to Mark Howling and Bridgepoint.
