NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--VSS, a private investment firm that invests in the information, education, healthcare, and tech-enabled business services industries, announced today it has exited its investment in IT-Ernity, a provider of business-critical managed services and shared hosting for SMEs in the Netherlands. The business was acquired by TransIP, a Dutch independent hosting and VPS provider.
Founded in 2002, IT-Ernity offers a comprehensive catalogue of standardized fully-managed solutions, including system administration, protection, security, application management and other outsourced services. The company provides shared hosting, domain registration and secure infrastructure connectivity through xDSL and fiber.
Since 2008, the company has increased its scale through fourteen acquisitions, including Proserve, a commercial internet service provider, strengthening its existing customer base and service portfolio.
In May 2013, VSS made a growth capital investment in IT-Ernity alongside GMT Communications Partners (“GMT”). Following the investment, IT-Ernity completed the strategic acquisition of CloudVPS, a cloud infrastructure (IaaS) provider in the Netherlands, and Signet, a provider of connectivity, networking and VoIP services. Over the last three years, IT-Ernity has increased its focus on the integration of the acquired companies and on cross sell activities between labels, transforming its strategy to an organic growth strategy. The company has expanded its products and entered into agreements with leading brands.
“VSS was very supportive of our company’s acquisition and organic growth activities and was with us every step of the way, assisting in capital structure, corporate infrastructure and strategy,” said Chris de Jongh, IT-Ernity CEO.
Patrick N.W. Turner, VSS Managing Director, added “IT-Ernity was poised for growth at the time of our investment. Through our partnership with the IT-Ernity’s management team, and GMT, our U.K. based PE partner, we achieved our shared vision of expanding IT-Ernity’s products, services and footprint. TransIP is the logical partner to take IT-Ernity to the next level.”
VSS has extensive experience investing in IT services sector, recently investing in Coretelligent, a provider of comprehensive IT and private cloud services, and QuadraNet, a full-service data center provider in downtown Los Angeles, California – one of the most well-regarded peering-exchanges locations.
VSS is in the process of investing its third Structured Capital fund (VSS Structured Capital III). VSS Structured Capital I and II are ranked as the top-rated funds by net IRR for the 2005 and 2009 vintages, respectively, according to Preqin’s listing of North American mezzanine funds as of March 31, 2018. In addition, VSS Structured Capital II was featured in the 2017 Preqin Alternative Assets Performance Monitor as a “Top 10 Performing Mezzanine Fund for All Vintages.”
About VSS
VSS (www.vss.com) is a private investment firm that invests in the information, education, healthcare, and tech-enabled business services industries. VSS provides capital for growth financings, recapitalizations, strategic acquisitions and buyouts to lower middle market companies and management teams with the goal of building companies organically as well as through a focused add-on acquisition program. VSS makes privately-negotiated investments across the capital structure and has the ability to invest in situations requiring control or non-control equity, mezzanine securities and structured equity securities.
About IT-Ernity
IT-Ernity, founded in 2002, is a leading provider of business-critical managed services and shared hosting for SMEs in the Netherlands. The company offers a comprehensive catalogue of standardized fully-managed solutions, including system administration, protection, security, application management and other outsourced services. The company provides shared hosting, domain registration and secure infrastructure connectivity through xDSL and fiber and is based in Rotterdam.
Disclaimer: With respect to Preqin benchmark comparisons, VSS utilizes both debt and equity in structuring its investments; not all mezzanine funds incorporate warrants and/or equity components; further, VSS SC I & II each made 2 (of 12) investments in European-based portfolio companies. No fund-level leverage has been utilized in VSS SC I, SC II or SC III to achieve the results shown above.
Preqin Performance Rankings, as well as the “Top Performing Fund” graphic were obtained directly from Preqin.com. The information obtained from Preqin has not been customized specifically for VSS. All of the Preqin sourced information and supporting data is available to subscribers of Preqin.com.
