East Mids IT firm secures £50m growth fund
GCI, the Lincoln and Derby managed IT service provider, has landed a £50m acquisition growth fund.
The fund was put together via the Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC in a deal led by GCI’s CFO Mark Allen, and brokered with the support of KPMG.
Allen said: “GCI has come a long way over the past nine months. At the start of the year, we took a long hard look at our operation and our marketplace, and set about finessing an organisation that has been 16 years in the making. The securing of this £50m fund is another step in our journey and our relentless pursuit of building a world-class managed services organisation.
“In terms of strategy, we are focusing GCI’s services and solutions around the needs of our customers and the irreversible trends in the business landscape, the need to support an increasingly-mobile workforce, the need to enable and support digital transformation and collaboration, the need for increasingly sophisticated security and compliance solutions, the need to support the ‘rise and rise’ of the omnichannel and diverse communications platforms. This £50m fund will help us robustly address those customer challenges and take GCI to the next level.”
Adrian Thirkill, CEO at GCI, added: “This is another great milestone for GCI. As an indicator of our resolve to build something special, our investments to date have already positioned GCI as a leading player in Unified Communications, with more than 60 Microsoft-certified professionals within our 300 strong organisation.
“We are already making very good use of the additional funding now available to us and will continue to invest in our capabilities around Office 365, Skype for Business, Azure, Cloud PBX and our growing PCI Compliance Services.”
Zoe Clarke, of KPMG, who helped broker the deal, said: “This is a landmark transaction which will help GCI to take forward its significant growth ambitions by allowing it to take advantage of acquisition growth opportunities as the business looks to build-out and add capabilities. Securing such a flexible bank facility not only shows the strength of the company’s strategy, but is also an indicator of the attractive bank market conditions still available for businesses with strong credit profiles.”
Dan Salt, regional head Midlands and West at Royal Bank of Scotland Corporate Transactions, added: “We are delighted to support GCI’s ambitious growth strategy and demonstrate our confidence in this sector by backing a strong management team with a clear focus on what they want to achieve in delivering world class telecommunications and IT solutions.”
HSBC’s area corporate director Roger Pratt, said: “We are delighted to support GCI through the next stage of its life cycle. Operating in an ever-changing ICT sector as technology advances, the group is expanding quickly and has been highly successful over a sustained period of time. GCI’s executive management have a clear strategic plan for the next five years, and we look forward to supporting GCI during this exciting period.”
GCI also has offices in Glasgow, Wakefield, Manchester, Shrewsbury, London and Southend-on-Sea.
