01732 759725 04 RESELLER NEWS BGF-backed Celerity acquires Chilli IT Celerity, the North-West IT services provider, has acquired Chester-based MSP and IBM Gold Partner Chilli IT, increasing its business turnover to more than £40 million and its headcount to 95. The company’s first transaction since it attracted a £15 million investment from growth capital investor BGF in 2021 is expected to boost Celerity’s technical expertise and unlock growth opportunities through complementary services and expansion into new sectors, notably logistics and retail. Celerity COO Craig Aston, said: “We’ve experienced strong organic growth with our managed services and have been looking for potential acquisitions to support the strategic direction of the business. Today’s deal enhances our service offerings while enabling cross-selling opportunities to drive growth through integration. The Chilli team brings a different, but complementary, set of technical skills to ours and a good client base.” Founded in 2002, Celerity provides intelligent cybersecurity, data protection and data visualisation services, while also managing and optimising legacy environments within the data centre and cloud. It plans to retain the Chilli brand and its 17-strong team in Chester. ··· Bates IT joins ITM in Aliter Capital II fund Aliter Capital LLP, the private equity buy and build specialist, has acquired Bates IT, an Essex-based provider of ICT managed and support services to the NHS and private healthcare organisations with capital from the Aliter Capital II fund. The deal sees Bates IT become part continued... Wavenet confirms plan to merge with Daisy Corporate Services IT specialists Wavenet and Daisy Corporate Services have confirmed plans to join forces and create the largest independent IT managed service provider in the UK. The £500m revenue company will employ around 2,000 staff and support over 22,000 UK businesses and public sector organisations, delivering cloud, cyber security and connectivity solutions. Wavenet’s existing private equity partner Macquarie Capital Principal Finance will become the largest shareholder in the merged company with Matthew Riley and other Daisy shareholders retaining a minority stake in the business. Riley will join the Wavenet Board as a non-executive director. Wavenet and Daisy have both expanded significantly through a combination of organic growth and strategic acquisitions in recent years. Wavenet has completed six acquisitions since 2021 and, in June 2023, Daisy acquired ECSC. Future growth opportunities will come from the combined company’s extended market reach and from cross and up-selling to the Wavenet and Daisy customer bases. Wavenet Chairman Bill Dawson said: “We are thrilled to be joining forces with Daisy. By combining our strengths, resources and expertise, we are poised to create a stronger and more innovative organisation, well positioned to maximise on the rising tide markets of cyber, cloud and intelligent networks.” www.wavenet.co.uk of a group in Aliter Capital’s second fund, alongside Milton Keynes based ITM Communications, a UK provider of critical network infrastructure services, in which Aliter invested in January 2023. Simon Fieldhouse, who was appointed ITM Group CEO in October 2023, said: “The team at Bates IT is a great cultural fit with ITM. Their highly developed specialist experience with long-established customer engagements in the healthcare sector opens exciting growth opportunities for the business. This aligns with our intended development of a specialist healthcare practice within a nationwide critical network and ICT infrastructure service business, delivering an extended managed service portfolio to our customers.” Fieldhouse will work closely with Bates IT’s principal shareholders and directors, Barry and Christopher Fuller, to drive further growth organically, whilst continuing to pursue a nationwide buy and build strategy to gain scale and a national footprint. Aliter is looking to acquire other businesses as bolt-ons to ITM, including critical network and ICT infrastructure specialists with strong capabilities in IoT, intelligent edge computing, safety and security, 5G, SDWAN and Data Centre and Colocation services. www.itm.uk.com ··· IT firm ramps up helpdesk team as business booms Derbyshire managed service provider True MSP is looking to recruit seven new technical helpdesk staff by June after launching a service that is expected to attract a flood of new clients. Through a partnership with Pax8, the Castle Donington-based MSP founded by Neil Shaw and Tim Rookes will be offering clients the ‘Triple Cloud’ of Microsoft systems – Microsoft 365, Microsoft Azure and Dynamics Business Central – for a fraction of the usual cost, bringing it within reach of SMEs for the first time. True MSP says it is able to offer Dynamics Business Central, an all-inone cloud-based application for running a business’s entire operation, from accounting and stock control to sales, logistics and customer service, for just a few thousand pounds, compared to the £100,000+ that large businesses pay. True MSP is expecting its Triple Cloud offering to help boost turnover by £500,000 over the next 12 months to £2.5m. www.truemsp.co.uk ··· Symatrix acquired by US enterprise solutions provider Symatrix, a Manchester-based Oracle HCM, Payroll, ERP, SCM and OCI partner, has been acquired by US enterprise solutions provider Applications Software Technology (AST), as part of the latter’s global expansion strategy. The deal follows a period of strong growth for Symatrix, including an 80% increase in revenue (in the 12 months to February 2024), supported by a 60% increase in headcount, a 20% expansion of its client base and entry into new Bill Dawson Wavenet Craig Aston, Celerity Simon Fieldhouse, ITM Group
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