Rigby Group’s SCC telecoms arm expands data centre provision with £12m acquisition
BIRMINGHAM-based SCC, Europe’s largest independent telecoms group, has expanded its portfolio with the acquisition of a new data facility in a deal worth around £12m.
SCC, the technology arm of the Rigby Group, has acquired SSE Telecoms’ flagship Hampshire Data Centre. The move takes its total investment in data centres to more than £50m in the past 12 months.
The deal sees SCC take ownership of the Fareham-based site, which is owned by the FTSE 100 listed energy and utility provider.
The transaction will provide SCC with crucial additional capacity in the South of England and it’s the group’s 12th piece of M&A activity – seventh alone in 2014 – since hitting the acquisition trail in 2013.
The data centre is a Tier 3+ facility, with advanced back-up systems, multiple uplinks and dual power systems in place to remain operational in all but the most exceptional circumstances.
Graded second highest in the data centre ranking system, the facility guarantees service availability 99.982% of the time and comes with a number of long-term deals in place with major corporate clients.
SCC witnessed growth of 69% from Data Centre and Cloud services alone last year following a succession of key customer wins including Gist, Aggregate Industries, BOC, IBM, Oxfordshire County Council, CAA and the Highways Agency.
Stephen Rigby, Rigby Group COO, said: “We are pleased to have been able to move quickly to secure this deal which provides crucial extra capacity and room for further expansion and investment.
“SCC remains the cornerstone of the group in terms of revenues and we have previously stated our desire to build our business through acquisition and this deal is further testament of this plan. We are also looking at other opportunities to continue to invest.”
James Rigby, SCC CEO, said: “This is a significant acquisition from a major FTSE 100 company, which represents another major step towards our goal to become Europe’s principal IT services business.
“We set out this ambition in our three-five year plan. The purchase of SSE’s data centre more than doubles our capacity and underpins the £50m spent on developing our data centre & cloud capabilities last year.”
Earlier this year, SCC acquired Europe’s leading independent managed print IT service provider M2 Digital as part of its strategic plan to significantly expand and strengthen its service division.
Elsewhere the Rigby Group, owned by entrepreneur Sir Peter Rigby, has also completed deals to buy Norwich International Airport as well as two hotels in the South West.
