HgCapital Trust PLC Hg invests in Combell Group (3104L)

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RNS Number : 3104L

HgCapital Trust PLC

21 December 2018

Hg Capital Trust plc

Hg, the Manager of HgCapital Trust plc ("the Company"), today announces that it has agreed to invest in Combell Group ("Combell"), a leader in mass hosting services for SMEs across Europe. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and so will close in the New Year. The terms of the investment are not disclosed.

HgCapital Trust plc will invest approximately GBP22.1 million in Combell, with other institutional clients of Hg investing alongside the Company through the Hg8 Fund.

The Company, whose shares are listed on the London Stock Exchange, gives private and institutional investors the opportunity to participate in all Hg's investments.

Note that these figures only relate to HgCapital Trust's share of Hg's overall investment in Combell.

Based on the 30 November 2018 NAV, the Company's liquid resources available for future deployment, including all announced transactions, are estimated to be GBP134 million (18% of the 30 November NAV of GBP764.4 million). In addition, the Company has access to an GBP80 million standby facility, which is currently undrawn. The investment will reduce the Company's outstanding commitments to invest in Hg transactions over the next four to five years to approximately GBP447 million.

Hg succeeds Waterland as investor in Combell Group

21 December 2018 - Hg today announces that it has agreed to invest in Combell Group ("Combell"), a leader in mass hosting services for SMEs across Europe. Waterland Private Equity exits its shareholding in Combell as part of the transaction.

The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and so will close in the New Year. Terms of the transaction are not disclosed.

Established in 1999, Combell is a leading mass hosting player in Belgium and Denmark, and has growing positions in the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland. Combell has over 800,000 SME and SoHo customers and is a one-stop partner for web hosting, domains, e-commerce and application solutions.

The investment represents Hg's 8(th) investment in the technology services sector, with other recent hosting investments including Zitcom (2015), DADA (2017) and most recently, IT Relation (2018). Combell shows similar characteristics to these businesses, having consistently delivered strong organic revenue growth, best-in-class customer satisfaction metrics and an exceptional M&A track record.

Nick Jordan, Partner, and Joris Van Gool, Director at Hg said: "We have been very impressed with what the team at Combell have built over the past 19 years in the Benelux and the Nordics. It's a privilege to invest alongside CEO Jonas Dhaenens and the entire management team. We have been following Combell for a long time and believe that the business is strongly positioned to continue growing organically while adding selective M&A on its platform. We look forward to partnering with the Combell team as the business continues to expand across Europe."

Jonas Dhaenens, Founder & CEO, Combell Group: "I am excited about the opportunity to partner with Hg in the next phase of Combell's growth and development. We look forward to working with Nick Jordan and the rest of the Hg team to grow a true industry champion. I would like to sincerely thank and congratulate Waterland for their tremendous support throughout the last 5 years; this incredibly successful ride would simply have been impossible without their unrelenting strategic guidance, operational support and buy & build execution power."

Cedric van Cauwenberghe, Managing Partner, Waterland: "Our partnership with the Combell team has delivered an exceptional result, driven by the company's international buy-and-build expansion strategy. Together with management we have grown the business more than tenfold in the last 5 years through consistent organic growth and 17 bolt on acquisitions, creating a leading position for Combell in Europe. We want to thank Jonas and the team for the great collaboration in the past years and wish them the best of luck in continuing this successful growth trajectory."

For further details:

Hg

 
 Laura Dixon    [phone] 
 

Maitland

 
 Vikki Kosmalska and Seda Ambartsumian    [phone] 
 

About HgCapital Trust plc

HgCapital Trust plc, whose shares are listed on the London Stock Exchange (ticker: HGT.L), gives investors exposure through a liquid vehicle to a portfolio of high-growth private companies in the technology and tech-enabled sector. The selection of new investments and creation of value in these businesses are managed by Hg, an experienced and well-resourced private equity firm with a long-term track record of delivering superior risk-adjusted returns for its investors. For further details, please see www.hgcapitaltrust.com.

The contents of the Hg, HgCapital Trust, Combell Group and Waterland's websites and any website accessible from hyperlinks on such websites (or any other website) are not incorporated into, and do not form part of, this announcement.

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December 21, 2018 09:00 ET (14:00 GMT)