Stevens & Bolton LLP has advised CANCOM SE, one of the leading providers of IT infrastructure and services in Germany and Austria with a turnover exceeding €1 billion, on its acquisition of UK based IT solutions provider OCSL. The purchase price was £29m satisfied in cash in the amount of c£26m and shares comprising 12.5% of a UK subsidiary of CANCOM.
In joining forces with OCSL, CANCOM takes another determined move towards a substantial UK market presence and the international growth of its business. In Spring 2018, Stevens & Bolton had the pleasure of advising CANCOM on its acquisition of UK-based UCC and Managed Services provider Ocean Intelligent Communications, now renamed CANCOM Collaboration and Communication.
As a digital transformation partner, CANCOM guides businesses into the digital future, with an innovative portfolio that covers the requirements of business IT for successful digital transformation, including cloud computing, analytics, enterprise mobility and security.
OCSL is a leading UK provider of cloud and on premise IT solutions, consultancy and support. It offers a broad portfolio of IT products and services to its clients, ranging from cloud and managed services, IT architecture design and strategic consultancy to data centre services as well as hardware and software. With OCSL acting as future hub for CANCOM Group’s UK activities, the transaction creates a major player in the country’s IT market by utilizing the combined product portfolios, capabilities and partner relationships of OCSL and CANCOM together. At the same time, it establishes a substantial UK-based branch for international clients and the managed services business of the whole CANCOM Group.
Key members of the management of OCSL will remain active in the business to drive forward the already fast growing business. In addition, the founders and several managers will remain minority partners of the company.
The Stevens & Bolton team was led by corporate partner Nick Atkins, supported by Mary Liu and Grace McNulty-Brown (corporate), Jamie Crawford (corporate tax), Gary Parnell (commercial), Ian Craig and Matthew Jamieson (real estate), Abigail Etchells and Boma Adoki (employment), Laura Barrett (finance) and Gabrielle Holgate and Kate Fellows-Tully (pensions). The team also worked closely with Cancom SE’s German lawyers Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek, led by Boris Dürr.
Thomas Volk, President and General Manager of CANCOM SE, said, "Our aim is to expand our Cloud and Managed Services business and this requires international structures. The close cooperation of both new British members of the CANCOM family together with the total Group, not only offers numerous opportunities in the UK, like introducing existing and potential clients to our IT infrastructure management software AHP. It also allows us to build a UK-based hub to serve international clients even better than today and it intensifies CANCOM’s transformation towards becoming an international company."
Commenting on the acquisition, Tim Thrower, founder of OCSL said, “I am delighted that the next stage in OCSL’s evolution is to become the UK based hub of such a large, successful and forward thinking company as CANCOM. OCSL has been on a journey to become a more services and cloud centric business. Becoming part of the CANCOM family, will accelerate that future for us. I feel we share a good cultural fit and this bodes well for a very exciting future. I would like to thank OCSL’s employees for all playing their part in making OCSL the chosen partner for CANCOM’s future growth in the UK“.
Nick Atkins