STL acquires 100% stake in UK based IDS Group

NSE-listed data network solutions company Sterlite Technologies Ltd (STL) has announced its acquisition of IDS Group, a data centre network infrastructure design and deployment specialist based in the United Kingdom.

As part of the overall transaction structure, STL will acquire 100% stake in the UK based Impact Data Solutions Limited (IDS) and its affiliate, together represented as IDS Group.

The privately held IDS Group is a solution provider of design and deployment offerings for hyper-scale data centres. These solutions are for cloud and colocation providers coupled with containment solutions for 'inside' data centres' infrastructure requirements.

IDS is known to be a key partner to two of the top four global cloud companies for their data centre connectivity needs with one relationship extending continuously for the last ten years. The company has a pan European presence with a dedicated partner ecosystem for flawless execution.

The transaction is structured to acquire 100%. Out of this 80% has been acquired, and the remaining 20% will be acquired based on an earn-out model, over the next few years. It is an all-cash deal financed by a combination of internal accruals and foreign currency debt instruments at an Enterprise Value of approx. £12 Mn (12 Million GBP), representing 100% of Share Capital of the IDS Group.

According to STL this acquisition solidifies its position in the cloud and data centre market and brings access to two of the top global cloud providers into its customer pool. This acquisition also brings STL one step closer towards its journey of expanding its addressable market to $75Bn by 2023.

"It is our endeavour to be more and more relevant to our customers' data network creation needs across the globe. The massive growth in data transmission and high bandwidth applications are driving a large need for edge compute and localised data centre, which makes this an extremely attractive space for investment. Ben and team have established IDS to be a very strong contender in this space, making this acquisition extremely well aligned to our stated strategy of strengthening our solutions to our Cloud Provider customer segment, and taking our Network Services Business global," said Dr Anand Agarwal, Group CEO STL.

Ben Parker, IDS CEO said at this occasion, "We are incredibly excited at the prospect of working together with STL to scale our already highly successful business operations and services to support our growing customer base. Joining the STL global platform will enable us to fast track our expansion with the quality, scale and breadth of competencies needed to meet our customers' complex design and deployment requirements."