The Hut Group swoops for UK2
Cheshire-based online retailer The Hut Group his bought web-hosting specialist UK2 from private equity firm LDC.
LDC is offloaded the London company six years after shelling out £47m for a majority stake in the company.
TGH’s headcount now adds up to above 600 following the addition of London-based UK2.
Its founder and chief executive Matthew Moulding said: “This is a significant technology investment to support our growth plans and provide a world-class proprietary ecommerce platform and infrastructure to increase capacity, speed and resilience for our global customer base.
“We are delighted to welcome UK2 and their highly skilled technology-based team of people to THG. The move will also see UK2 become a core part of our technology proposition within the THG Platform Division, helping us achieve our ambition of becoming a world class platform for technology clients.
“We expect this to be the start of further significant investment in UK technology with a further 1,000 new technology jobs planned over the next three years.”
The sale does not include UK2 Group’s US based e-sports business, Digital Chaos, which remains under LDC’s ownership.
The transaction value is undisclosed.
Simon Adcock, senior portfolio director at LDC who has led the process, said: “After a six-year journey with LDC, this is an excellent outcome for employees, management, customers and shareholders, and an ideal strategic fit for both businesses.
“For an ambitious, technology-led group like THG, hosting is mission-critical – UK2 provides a well-invested, plug-in capability to strengthen and enhance their existing infrastructure and support their growth. We wish the business every success for the future.”
Established in 1998, UK2 operates seven brands including 100TB, providing high-performance and dedicated server and cloud services to an international client base of SME and enterprise level corporates coupled with data analytics, shared hosting and domain registration services.
It employs more 200 people across 26 global locations including London, US, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, India and South Korea.
LDC was advised by Torch Partners, Deloitte and CMS.
