Sabio looks to expand outside UK

Telecoms firm plans to double in size following private equity deal

Comms reseller Sabio plans to expand outside the UK using capital raised from its recent private equity deal, according to new CEO Andy Roberts.

Last month Lyceum Capital acquired a 56 per cent stake in Sabio and made £30m available for acquisitions.

Roberts told CRN that Sabio has a strong support and managed services offering in the UK, headquartered in Glasgow, but that the injection from Lyceum Capital will open up more opportunities in Europe and Asia.

Roberts was promoted from COO to CEO when the takeover was completed.

"Being able to use that [existing business] as a platform to grow outside the UK was very much what we were looking for," he said.

"It's the investment in our business, and then having money available to us for inorganic growth, that attracted us to them."

Twenty-five per cent of Sabio's revenue currently comes from outside the UK and around 15 per cent of its customers carry out business outside the UK.

"I would expect something to happen within the first 12 months," Roberts added. "Lyceum invested in us because of the core platform that we've built, and being able to expand that into other geographies and technologies provides a very exciting opportunity for our business partners."

Ian Spence, CEO at analyst Megabuyte, told CRN that becoming more active with acquisitions is not the only appeal to private equity deals.

"[Sabio has] some firepower for acquisitions which they've not done previously but is now on the agenda," he said. "That is one of the reasons why infrastructure services, telecoms and network, and IT services firms would invite in a private equity firm.

"We've seen ECI investing in IT Lab, that's another one that's going to be doing acquisitions after a partial buy out of previous shareholders. There's a lot of that going on at the moment.

"The M&A side of things is one of the key drivers [in private equity deals], but also the ability for the founders and the management team to realise some of their holdings."

Last week Lyceum Capital partner Simon Hitchcock told CRN that the firm was closing in on the acquisition of a firm in a "similar space" to Sabio.