Oakley Capital sells Host Europe for £222 million

Oakley acquired Host Europe in April 2008, for a consideration of £128 million. At that time the group also included Vialtus Solutions, which was sold to AIM listed Daisy Group plc (“Daisy”) in July 2009 for a consideration of £42 million consisting of £13 million of cash and the issue of 36.25 million shares in Daisy (14% of share capital). Oakley will continue to own the Daisy shares post completion and remains an active and supportive shareholder in the company.

• Host Europe is the largest independent mass market hosting provider in Europe with over 3 million customer contracts and around 350 staff.
• It accounts for circa 25% of all domain names registered in the UK and is the leading provider of standardized managed hosting in Germany.
• Since acquisition, Oakley has worked in partnership with management on a successful operational restructuring and profit improvement plan which led to the sale of Vialtus Solutions and has enabled the company to accelerate revenue and earnings growth.

Final completion of the deal is conditional upon approval from Germany’s Federal Cartel Office which is expected to take up to four weeks.