SAN FRANCISCO & LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--White Oak Global Advisors and its affiliates (“White Oak”) sourced, arranged and provided a cornerstone commitment, alongside early commitments from funds advised by Permira Debt Managers, and H.I.G. WhiteHorse completing the club (together the “Lenders”), for a €164 million Senior Financing to support the acquisition of Getronics by strategic investor Bottega InvestCo S.à.r.l. (hereafter “Bottega”). Getronics is a leading player in the ICT services sector in Europe, with strong positioning within mediumto large-sized enterprises and with public institutions. The Lenders were involved at an early stage of the process, coordinating their diligence with Bottega and management, and structuring a bespoke solution for the new owner/operator, while focusing global resources and expertise in the ICT services sector.
Nana Baffour, Founder and CEO of Bottega, said: “I am pleased and very grateful for the support of White Oak, Permira Debt Managers and H.I.G. WhiteHorse in this very transformative transaction for Bottega. The support and understanding of our unique value proposition in the very beginning by White Oak was very instrumental in our ability to execute on this complex transaction and I am looking forward to strengthening my partnership with the Lenders as we build Getronics into an innovative leading transformation change-agent in the ICT space.”
Darius Mozaffarian, Co-President and Partner at White Oak said: “We are proud to support Nana Baffour and Bottega’s acquisition of Getronics with an anchor investment and by arranging the remainder of the €164 million credit facility. This transaction is a perfect example of our ability to partner with leading management teams at a global level. We value the industry and operational expertise that Nana and his team bring to Getronics and look forward to continuing our support for Getronics as it continues to expand its international presence.”
Thomas Kyriakoudis, Chief Investment Officer at Permira Debt Managers, said: “Getronics is an excellent company with a longstanding history of providing highly valuable ICT services to blue-chip customers worldwide. We are very pleased to back Nana Baffour and Bottega with a long-term, flexible financing solution for Getronics as an anchor investor.”
Kenneth Borton, Managing Director at H.I.G. WhiteHorse, said: “We are delighted to be able to assist Bottega by joining the Lenders to provide a tailor-made financing solution for the acquisition of Getronics. This transaction demonstrates our ability to support entrepreneurial investors with bespoke, flexible and committed financing solutions in a timely manner.”
About Getronics
Getronics is an ICT Services group consisting of the Getronics and Connectis brands. With an extensive history that extends over 125 years; Getronics has nearly 4,500 employees in 22 countries across Europe, Asia Pacific & Latin America, and has a complete portfolio of integrated ICT services for the large enterprise and public sector markets. This includes Workspace, Applications, Unified Communications, Data Centre, Cloud, Consulting, Partner Technology, Managed Services and Security.
Getronics is a leading member in the Global Workspace Alliance, a unique model that provides customers with a consistent IT service throughout the world, with one single point of contact and billing entity, delivering services to over 100 countries. The GWA manages 9.9 million workspace assets globally, and was ranked number 3 by OVUM among leading global vendors for workplace management.
About Bottega
Bottega is a strategic investor whose majority shareholder is the US/Brazilian entrepreneur Nana Baffour, who operates in the IT services market through Grupo Cimcorp in Brazil.
About White Oak
White Oak Global Advisors, LLC is a leading global alternative asset manager specializing in originating and providing credit financing solutions to facilitate the growth, acquisitions, refinancings and recapitalizations of small and medium size enterprises. With over $7.0 billion of capital invested in over 500 companies, White Oak provides small and medium size enterprises with term loans, asset-based lending, invoice factoring, trade finance, equipment financing and treasury management. Since its inception in 2007, White Oak’s disciplined investment process focuses on delivering risk-adjusted investment returns and establishing long term partnerships with our borrowers. More information can be found at www.whiteoaksf.com
About Permira Debt Managers
Permira Debt Managers is Permira’s independent debt management and advisory business. It is one of Europe’s leading specialist debt investors, advising investment funds and products which have provided circa €4.0 billion of debt capital to over 100 European businesses. PDM was established in 2007 and is owned jointly by its Partners and by Permira. PDM aims to partner with businesses to provide the capital they require and generate market-leading risk adjusted returns for investors in PDM funds. To achieve this PDM follows two key investing strategies: Direct Lending and Structured Credit. PDM also has a distinctive origination platform which benefits from the strength of Permira’s extensive network including 6 European investing offices in the UK, France, Germany, Sweden, Italy and Spain, and 5 sector teams specializing in Consumer, Financial Services, Healthcare, Industrials and Technology.
About H.I.G. WhiteHorse
H.I.G. WhiteHorse is the credit affiliate of H.I.G. Capital focused on providing flexible debt financing solutions to middle market companies in Europe and the United States. Operating a broad investment mandate, H.I.G. WhiteHorse provides unitranche, senior and subordinated debt capital for refinancings, growth capital, acquisitions, buyouts, and balance sheet recapitalizations. Credit facilities typically range from €10.0 million to €75.0 million for companies with revenues of €40.0 million or more. For more information, please refer to the WhiteHorse website at: www.higeurope.com/whitehorse.
