Madrid — One Equity Part­ners (“OEP”), a middle-market private equity firm, has announ­ced the comple­tion of its acqui­si­tion of VASS Consul­to­ría de Siste­mas S.L. (“VASS” or “the Company”), a leading Euro­pean provi­der of digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion, cloud infra­struc­ture and mana­ged IT services solu­ti­ons. Terms of the tran­sac­tion were not disclosed.

VASS, head­quar­te­red in Madrid, specia­li­zes in the digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion of its custo­mers’ value chain through the imple­men­ta­tion and main­ten­ance of custo­mer rela­ti­onship manage­ment and enter­prise resource appli­ca­ti­ons and the provi­sion of tech­no­logy infra­struc­ture services. The company has many years of expe­ri­ence with Big Data, robo­tic process auto­ma­tion imple­men­ta­tion, intel­li­gent busi­ness process manage­ment and simi­lar tech­no­lo­gies. — Demand for cloud infra­struc­ture services, cloud soft­ware and cyber­se­cu­rity is expec­ted to drive growth in Spain’s digi­tal services sector. Infra­struc­ture services are the largest segment of the mana­ged IT services market in the coun­try, gene­ra­ting about half of total annual reve­nue, follo­wed by network and secu­rity services.

“We have analy­zed the Spanish IT services market in detail for 18 months and are convin­ced that VASS is the perfect buy-and-build plat­form. The company provi­des indus­­try-leading services to its custo­mers who want to remain compe­ti­tive through digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion solu­ti­ons that span the entire value chain,” said Jörg Zire­ner (photo), senior mana­ging direc­tor at One Equity Part­ners. “This tran­sac­tion is repre­sen­ta­tive of OEP’s approach to part­ne­ring with start-ups that have a strong track record of orga­nic growth as well as inves­t­ing in market-leading tech­no­logy companies.”

OEP has a long track record of working with foun­ders and share­hol­ders of high-quality, high-growth global IT services and enter­prise soft­ware compa­nies. These can gradu­ally expand their tech­no­lo­gi­cal capa­bi­li­ties, geogra­phic reach and market share thanks to OEP’s exper­tise in trans­for­ma­tive acqui­si­ti­ons and orga­nic growth investments.

“A simi­lar invest­ment by OEP in the Euro­pean IT services sector, that of Italian digi­tal solu­ti­ons provi­der Lutech, allo­wed Lutech to grow from €180 million to €440 million in less than three years. In that time, Lutech has brought on board highly sought-after tech­no­lo­gies through 15 add-on acqui­si­ti­ons that have convin­ced foun­ders and manage­ment teams to become part of this exci­ting evolu­tion, a larger distri­bu­tion chan­nel for its suppli­ers and a more compre­hen­sive part­ner for its custo­mers,” said Sebas­tian Schat­ton, Asso­ciate at One Equity Part­ners. “We believe Vass is the perfect plat­form to imple­ment simi­lar growth deve­lo­p­ment in Spain and Latin America.”

“We are very exci­ted to part­ner with OEP and look forward to provi­ding next-gene­ra­­tion IT consul­ting solu­ti­ons across Europe for compa­nies looking to improve their busi­ness models, deli­ver inno­va­tive services and enhance the custo­mer expe­ri­ence through digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion,” said Fran­cisco Javier Latasa, foun­der and CEO of VASS, who will remain an inves­tor in the company.

OEP has expe­ri­ence buil­ding IT consul­ting and soft­ware compa­nies, and built Info­bip, a global cloud commu­ni­ca­ti­ons plat­form for the world’s largest compa­nies; CDI, a leading U.S. provi­der of tech­no­logy infra­struc­ture hard­ware and soft­ware, consul­ting and mana­ged services; and Lutech, an Italian IT systems inte­gra­tion and solu­ti­ons provi­der, among others.

Advi­sor One Equity Part­ners (OEP): Allen & Overy LLP

The Allen & Overy team, led by part­ner Dr. Nils Koffka and senior asso­ciate Dr. Marcus Macken­sen (both Corporate/Private Equity, Hamburg), included part­ners Igna­cio Hornedo (Madrid) and Sophie Roozend­aal (Amster­dam, all Corporate/Private Equity). In addi­tion, part­ner Thomas Neubaum (lead, Frank­furt) and part­ner Jimena Urre­ta­vi­z­caya (Madrid, both banking and finance) advi­sed on the finan­cing. In addi­tion, Coun­sel Mark Hallet (Banking and Finance, Frank­furt), Senior Asso­cia­tes Rafael Gime­­nez-Reyna (Tax) and José Luis Terron (Liti­ga­tion, both Madrid), and Asso­cia­tes Dr. Jan Frede­rik C. Holst (Corporate/Private Equity, Hamburg), Louisa Drew­niok (Banking and Finance, Frank­furt), Miguel Zulaica, Xavier Castella (both Corporate/M&A), Marina Granada (Tax), Sofía Sanchez-Calero, Paloma Asegu­rado (both Banking and Finance), Inigo Olabarri (Labor Law, all Madrid) and Justine Drei­jer (Corporate/M&A, Amsterdam).

About One Equity Partners

One Equity Part­ners (“OEP”) is a middle-market private equity firm focu­sed on the indus­trial, health­care and tech­no­logy sectors in North America and Europe. The company builds market-leading busi­nesses by iden­ti­fy­ing and execu­ting trans­for­ma­tive busi­ness combi­na­ti­ons. OEP is a trus­ted part­ner with a diffe­ren­tia­ted invest­ment process and a diverse and expe­ri­en­ced team. It has a long track record and gene­ra­tes long-term value for its part­ners. Since 2001, the company has comple­ted more than 300 tran­sac­tions world­wide. OEP, foun­ded in 2001, was spun off from JP Morgan in 2015. The company has offices in New York, Chicago, Frank­furt and Amster­dam. www.oneequity.com.