Private equity firm Cinven has agreed to sell Host Europe Group (HEG), one of the largest privately-owned web services providers in Europe, to GoDaddy, a cloud platform dedicated to small, independent ventures.
Cinven acquired the core business within HEG in August 2013 for an original consideration of GBP438 million.
The transaction marked the first platform acquisition of an overall consolidation strategy, originated by Cinven’s TMT team who had identified web services as an attractive and fragmented market.
The Cinven team worked closely with the HEG management team and key achievements include: implementing a buy and build strategy including four significant acquisitions – Telefonica Online Services, Domainfactory, Intergenia and Paragon – and a number of additional smaller acquisitions including eight in the first half of 2016; consolidating the HEG businesses to six primary brands from more than 20 deals completed since the company was founded; strengthening and investing in HEG’s management team including the promotion of Patrick Pulvermüller from COO to CEO and the appointment of new divisional CEOs for both Mass Hosting and Managed Hosting; improving HEG’s organisational structure to function as an integrated group with clear focus on its two core business divisions; introducing new products in existing business units and rolling out existing products across the group; and optimising the capital structure of the business.
This transaction represents the third successful realisation of a Cinven portfolio company within the last two months following Cinven’s agreements to sell Italian-headquartered Avio Spazio, an international operator in space launchers and space propulsion, and German-based lighting business, SLV. 

