Oakley Regulatory News (OCI)

30th January 2015

Oakley Capital Investments Limited ("OCIL")

Acquisition of Damovo

Oakley Capital Investments Limited (AIM: OCL), the AIM-listed company established to provide investors with access to the investment strategy being pursued by Oakley Capital Private Equity L.P. ("Fund I") and its successor fund, Oakley Capital Private Equity II ("Fund II"), announces that Fund II has acquired a significant majority of the shares in the European companies owned and operated by Damovo II Sarl. Matthew Riley, founder of Daisy Group plc ("Daisy Group"), will be investing alongside Fund II and will lead the businesses as Executive Chairman. 

The businesses that have been acquired are: Damovo's operations in Germany, Ireland, Switzerland, Poland, Belgium and Damovo's Global Services business (collectively "Damovo Europe").

Damovo Europe is a provider of enterprise information communication technology (ICT) services and solutions. Its core areas of expertise are Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC: IP-enabled voice communications, email exchange services, messaging, voicemail, audio, web and video conferencing etc), enterprise networks, contact centres, cloud services and global managed services. Damovo Europe employs 271 people across its 14 locations in continental Europe.

Oakley Capital Private Equity has a well-established track record in the Telecoms, UCC and adjacent sectors through its investments in Daisy Group, Host Europe Group and intergenia, investments that generated returns of 35 times, 2.4 times and 2.5 times, respectively for Oakley Capital Private Equity.

The particular attractions of investing in Damovo Europe include:

· Managed services revenue making up 50% of revenues, with a strategy to increase this proportion going forward

· A reputation for delivering exceptional customer satisfaction

· The opportunity for significant revenue and margin growth through investment and economies of scale

· The opportunity to back a strong and experienced management team (led by Matthew Riley) in a European roll-up strategy, replicating the success of Daisy Group 

· It is well positioned to take advantage of ICT market growth, particularly within UCC

Commenting on the acquisition, Rebecca Gibson, Partner of Oakley Capital Private Equity said today:

"Damovo Europe is already very well established in a number of European markets and the fact that the worldwide Unified Communications market is expected to be worth in excess of $75Bn by 2020 with significant growth expected to come from within Europe, makes Damovo Europe an obvious choice to add to Oakley's portfolio. I am particularly pleased that Matthew Riley will be investing alongside us and will be Executive Chairman. He has an exceptional record of valuation creation in the sector."

Matthew Riley, Executive Chairman of Damovo Europe, added: 

"The growth opportunity in Unified Communications over the coming 3-5 years is significant and Damovo Europe is perfectly positioned to materially grow its share of this expanding market. It is an organisation that customers believe delivers high-quality communications solutions to its customers and I am personally very excited about the future for the company."

For further information please contact:

Oakley Capital 

+44 20 7766 6900

Peter Dubens (Managing Partner)

FTI Consulting LLP

+44 20 3727 1000

Ed Bridges/Emily Desmier

Liberum Capital Limited (Nominated Adviser & Broker) 

+44 20 3100 2000

Steve Pearce / Tom Fyson

About Oakley Capital Investments Limited ("OCL")

Oakley Capital Investments Limited is a Bermudan based company listed on AIM. OCL seeks to provide investors with long term capital appreciation through its investment in Oakley Capital Private Equity L.P. and Oakley Capital Private Equity II and, over time, through co-investment opportunities.

About Oakley Capital Private Equity 

Oakley Capital Private Equity II ("Fund II") is an unlisted mid-market private equity fund with the aim of providing investors with significant long term capital appreciation. The Fund's investment strategy is to focus on buy-out opportunities in industries with the potential for growth, consolidation and performance improvement. The Fund seeks to invest in companies with scale in their industry subsectors, thereby creating a sustainable earnings stream which should command a premium on exit.

Fund II is advised by Oakley Capital Limited, a privately owned asset management and financial advisory business with over $1 billion of assets under management which has a focus on investing in the telecoms, IT and media space.