Onyx boosts M&A fire power through ISIS investment

Private equity house makes £42m investment in cloud and datacentre provider

Onyx Group has seen its acquisition war chest boosted by £15m following its majority takeover by private equity house ISIS Equity Partners.

ISIS is pumping £42m into the business continuity, cloud computing and datacentre service specialist. This comprises a purchase price of £27m and a further £15m in fire power to fund acquisitions.

Founded in 1994 and with a turnover of £14.9m, Onyx has made six acquisitions in the past few years and was recently listed as one of the fastest-growing UK firms in the Sunday Times Tech Track 100. It now has 10 UK sites, including five datacentres.

Neil Stephenson, chief executive of Onyx Group, said: "This is a milestone for Onyx which will greatly bolster our position as a leading provider of specialised IT provision within the datacentre, business continuity and cloud space."

Mark Advani, who led the investment in Onyx on behalf of ISIS - which owns the majority of Onyx following the deal - said: "The Onyx management team has done a great job of building a diverse, high-service-level provider of data storage and business continuity services with its existing investors. We are looking forward greatly to helping them accelerate their growth while building upon their high-touch, local-service proposition."