£26m-revenue security arm spun out of ECS Group in MBO

ECS Security renamed Adarma

ECS Security has been spun out of the main ECS Group following a management buyout (MBO).

The MBO has been led by David Calder and Nathan Dornbrook, with support from private equity investor Livingbridge and debt from Bank of Scotland. The security arm has also been renamed Adarma.

Paul Thomson, chief executive at ECS Group, said: "Over the last six years ECS's security business has grown rapidly within the group into a truly industry-leading provider of cybersecurity services.

"Strategically it makes sense for ECS Group and Security to separate, allowing both companies to further focus on their core areas of expertise.

"For [the] group, this also enables us to expand our core offerings and expertise in digital transformation in our key markets, namely enterprise IT infrastructure and public cloud, as well as investing heavily to build out other areas of the business.

"We wish David, Nathan, the management team and the staff at Adarma all the very best and anticipate working in close partnership with them moving forwards."

The spin-out creates a business of 250 employees and sales of £26.3m (for the year ending 31 December 2017). The firm's vendor partners include Splunk, Phantom, Tenable and Symantec.

ECS Europe, the largest ECS entity on Companies House, reported sales of £36.7m over the same period.

David Calder, managing director at Adarma, said: "Our decision to create Adarma is part of our desire to focus exclusively on the security space with the aim of becoming the UK market leader for FTSE 250 organisations across a broad range of industries

"We are thrilled to receive backing from Livingbridge as we start this new chapter in our journey.

"Our tailored solutions and in-depth engagements with our customers ensure a deeper understanding of their business and requirements, enabling us to deliver improved results for each client."

Matthew Caffrey, partner at Livingbridge added: "Adarma is a very exciting business for us to partner with.

"We believe there is an opportunity to partner with the team to build a business of real scale in the growing cybersecurity market. The team have built up a great business and we're excited to work with them as they grow."