By Emma-Victoria Farr
LONDON (Reuters) – Private equity firm Oakley is looking to sell its majority stake in German cloud hosting platform Contabo as it seeks to capitalize on cloud computing demand fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic, two people familiar with the situation said.
The Munich-based company could be valued between 700 million euros and 800 million euros ($762.6 million and $871.5 million) as part of an auction process expected after the Easter holidays, those people said.
London-based consultancy Arma Partners is handling the sale, which primarily targets private equity bidders, one of the people said.
The company has already attracted interest from several tech-focused buyout funds, including Hg, Montagu, Vitruvian, Cinven and IK Partners, another source said.
Oakley, Arma Partners, Hg, Cinven, Montagu, Vitruvian and IK Partners declined to comment.
Oakley took control of Contabo from the founders in 2019. The company forecast adjusted core profit of about $21.4 million for 2021 and $43.7 million in sales, according to public filings.
The size of the global cloud computing market is expected to grow to $832 billion by 2025, from $371 billion in 2020, at a compound annual growth rate of 17.5%, according to data from Research and Markets.
Digital business transformation became more urgent during the pandemic as office, school and enterprise closures increased the demand for cloud solutions and services.
Contabo’s cloud hosting platform is used by developers, entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized businesses for web hosting, development and storage. Its hosting services operate in 189 countries.
($1 = 0.9179 euros)
(Reporting by Emma-Victoria Farr, editing by Pamela Barbaglia and Tomasz Janowski)
