Barings has served as lender on a senior secured facility to support Inflexion in its acquisition of ANS Group, a leading provider of digital transformation and cloud managed services. Financial terms have not been disclosed.
ANS and existing Inflexion investment UKFast will be brought together under one parent group to address the rapid market growth opportunity for digital and cloud services. The group will combine ANS’s public cloud, DevOps, applications and data expertise with UKFast’s leadership in private cloud, hosting and security, to create the UK’s independent leader in secure cloud-led digital transformation across the public and private sectors. Each business will continue to operate under its existing brand, while offering customers the full portfolio of offerings from across the extended group.
“The combined group will be a leader in digital transformation and cloud services,” says Joseph Buckley, Director in Barings’ European Private Finance group. “We remain focused on investing in the highest quality businesses backed by top-tier financial sponsors and are delighted to have supported Inflexion in its acquisition of ANS.”
“ANS has built itself into a UK leader for public cloud services, complementing our existing investment in UKFast. Together, the businesses are well poised to accelerate their growth as the market for cloud and digital services continues to benefit from strong demand,” says Philip Edmans, Partner at Inflexion. “We greatly appreciate the flexible and customized financing we received from Barings Global Private Finance in its ongoing support of the group.”
Founded in 1996, ANS is a Manchester-based managed and professional services provider with a key focus on public cloud, applications, and data propositions. Founded in 1998, UKFast is a leader in managed hosting and private cloud services, also based in Manchester.