Zycko and Wick Hill 'a marriage made in heaven'

Rigby Private Equity makes 'significant investment' in Zycko five months after snapping up stake in Wick Hill

Zycko's CEO has described his firm's union with Rigby Private Equity (RPE) and new stable mate Wick Hill as "a match made in heaven".

RPE, the private equity arm of Rigby Group Investments, has today made a "significant investment" in Zycko that it claims will help the networking and storage VAD to accelerate its EMEA expansion plans.

The move comes five months after RPE snapped up a stake in security VAD Wick Hill, citing the same rationale.

Sir Peter Rigby exited the IT distribution game in 2012 when SCH sold broadliner SDG to Tech Data, but the plan now under RPE is to build an "EMEA-wide high-value specialist distribution business". CRN reported in July that RPE has a total kitty of £50m to spend in the IT distribution and wider IT market.

Although Zycko and Wick Hill will be run as separate businesses - at least in the short term - Zycko chief executive David Galton-Fenzi (pictured below) said the duo can draw on each other's strength as their respective businesses expand in Europe.

"Just over a year ago we saw the market moving and decided we wanted to get into security," he said. "We signed Arbor up about a year ago but our marriage with Wick Hill helps us accelerate that strategy."

"I know you hear this a lot, but really this is a match made in heaven. Everyone knows the Rigby Group's track record: this is not just a financing - although it does give us extra firepower - they have a huge pedigree."

With offices in 12 countries and revenues of about £100m, Riverbed distributor Zycko became a target for RPE soon after the private equity arm of Rigby Group was formed this March, RPE head Paul Eccleston revealed.

"The objective of this project is to build a highly specialised distribution business that covers all the major markets of EMEA," he said.

"It is about identifying companies with a great reputation, foundation and plans that we can add resourcing to, to help them accelerate those plans. Wick Hill and Zycko were on that list early on."

For now at least, Wick Hill and Zycko will stay separate, Eccleston said.

"We will spend some time looking at the two businesses and the opportunities for our partners that we can create by combining their capabilities over time," he explained.

Galton-Fenzi said RPE's involvement is helping accelerate Zycko's Nordic expansion plans, with tentative steps to set up shop in Denmark already underway.

"We are drawing up the plans now but are not ready to share them," he said.

All of Zycko's active management team remain on board, Galton-Fenzi added.

"I wake up in the morning and I'm excited again," he said. "We're going into the fight with better armoury than we had before, so that's why [I'm so keen] to take this forward. Our IP is around services. All the vendors love what we do and want us to do it on a wider scale. There is a real hole in the market that is presently not delivered by any other distributor."

Ian Kilpatrick, chairman of Wick Hill, which has a presence in the UK and DACH, said: "Zycko have got 14 offices in 12 territories, so there is a big opportunity from a Wick Hill perspective."

More acquisitions are on the cards for RPE, Eccleston concluded.

"We will continue looking in distribution and into other areas of IT as we build out a number of businesses," Eccleston (pictured, left) said.