Private equity investor Beech Tree has agreed the sale of Wavenet, a leading cloud telecoms, IT and technology managed services provider, to Macquarie Capital Principal Finance (Macquarie Capital).
Beech Tree invested in Wavenet in 2016 after identifying the potential for growth and Wavenet’s unique and award-winning telecoms and technology portfolio. Over the past five years, Wavenet has grown from £14M turnover in 2016 to over £60M in 2021, through a mixture of acquisitions and strong organic growth. There has also been significant investment made in the people, network, products and systems, which has resulted in Wavenet being able to support large scale enterprise solutions including their recent win of DVLA’s contact centre and back-office.
Wavenet’s strong growth has been supported by eight acquisitions targeted at augmenting the company’s rich portfolio, increasing the number of highly skilled technical staff and strategically expanding its presence across the UK. Wavenet’s most recent acquisitions of VIA, Townley and Qubic have provided the infrastructure to deliver a comprehensive suite of connectivity, cloud and cyber services and confidently move into the ITaaS space, supported by the new partnership with HPE.
Wavenet has built on a solid foundation for growth over the last five years, with a focus on future technologies and digital transformation that will drive the industry and its customers. The new partnership with Macquarie will boost this growth potential, enabling more investment in the people at Wavenet and provide a renewed focus on strategic acquisitions.
Paul Franks, Managing Partner at Beech Tree Private Equity said “We are delighted to have worked with Bill and the management team at Wavenet over the past five years. The business has grown substantially – both in scale and capability, including eight strategic acquisitions. Wavenet is now one of the stand-out unified communications players in the UK market. I wish Macquarie and Wavenet every success for the future.”
Bill Dawson, CEO at Wavenet commented: “I am extremely grateful for Beech Tree’s support and advice over the last five years, the team have been integral in empowering the expansion and development which has resulted in our fantastic growth. As a team, we are excited to continue to build on this growth as we enter our new partnership with Macquarie. I am confident that the passion and quality of our people, management and infrastructure combined with Macquarie’s experience will drive us to even greater success in the future.”
Adam Joseph, Head of Private Equity for Macquarie Capital Principal Finance Europe, said: “We are delighted to partner with the Wavenet team and help them continue their strong growth trajectory. This investment provides us with a unique opportunity to deploy our flexible capital to grow a leading UK technology provider at a time when organisations across the country are looking for increasingly innovative technology solutions. We are looking forward to using our experience from growing other UK businesses to support the development of Wavenet both from an organic and acquisitive standpoint.”
The Wavenet transaction follows other successful Macquarie Capital investments in UK medium-sized businesses and builds on its track record of providing growth capital and flexible financing solutions. One example is Glasgow based Energetics, one of the UK’s largest independent energy network owners, under Macquarie Capital’s five-year ownership, the business increased its workforce by 75 per cent, expanded into new geographic regions and the number of installed connections increased threefold. Macquarie Capital has also helped finance the growth of Yorkshire based Premier Technical Services Group (PTSG). PTSG has continued to grow its compliance workforce organically whilst also completing bolt-on acquisitions across the UK.
About Wavenet
Formed in 2000, Wavenet has grown through the last two decades to become a respected, multi-award-winning provider of telecoms and technology solutions to thousands of businesses and enterprises across the UK. Wavenet is a managed service provider and has long-standing partnerships with some of the top technology providers on the planet. Wavenet is a Premier Certified Cisco Partner, Microsoft Partner and holds Platinum Partner status with Mitel, Five9 and Silver Peak, acquired by Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company.
Providing data, voice, contact centre, IT and technology services to over 8,000 SME and enterprise customers, Wavenet has offices in Solihull, Chester, Norwich, Cardiff, St Albans and Nottingham and employs over 200 people, including over 100 trained support staff and engineers.
For more information, visit: www.wavenetuk.com
About Macquarie Capital Principal Finance
Macquarie Capital is the advisory, capital markets and principal investment arm of Macquarie Group. Macquarie Capital Principal Finance, the principal investment business, provides flexible financing and secondary market investing solutions for corporate and real estate commercial real estate clients across North America, Europe, and Australasia. Since 2009 Macquarie Capital’s Principal Finance team has provided financing and investment capital on a flexible and bespoke basis for over 700 companies, deploying over £26 billion globally.
Recognising that every client is different, Macquarie Capital Principal Finance’s expertise goes beyond traditional financing to adapt solutions to meet individual client needs.
For further information visit: www.macquarie.com/us/corporate/financing/principal-finance.
About Beech Tree Private Equity
Beech Tree Private Equity invests between £10m and £40m in any one business. Funding can be used to support management buy-outs, provide cash out to owner-managers, fund acquisitions and organic growth initiatives. Sectors include financial services, support services and technology and in all cases, Beech Tree looks for platform businesses in which they can invest further to accelerate organic growth and, often, also pursue acquisition strategies.
For more information visit: www.beechtreepe.com