Budapest, October 11, 2010 – GTS Central Europe, a leading infrastructure-based telecommunications operator, provider of data center services in Central and Eastern Europe and the parent of GTS Hungary, has closed the acquisition of Interware and will spend EUR 550,000 in the next 3 months on the expansion of the acquired data center in Victor Hugo Street, Budapest. The combination of Interware and existing GTS Hungary data center facilities will position GTS Hungary as leader in the Hungarian data center market.
GTS Central Europe signed the contract on the acquisition of 100% of Interware on June 10, 2010. The parties have not disclosed the details of the financial agreement. The transaction was completed on October 1, 2010 with the approval of the Hungarian Competition Authority.
Interware has an established history as an outstanding operator in the Hungarian
alternative telecommunications market since 1998, offering server hosting, colocation,
internet and fixed line telephone services primarily to business customers. The company operates two data centers in central Budapest, with a total area of 1,075 square meters. Interware will be merged into GTS Hungary, creating a combined business with annual revenues exceeding EUR 62 million and data centers having a total floor area of more than 1,600 square meters.
In the Victor Hugo Street data center, which it has also acquired with the deal, GTS Hungary will add colocation space and increase the power supply. This investment is estimated to cost EUR 550,000 and will provide incremental space and power for our customers.
The acquisition of Interware is in line with the GTS group strategy for the Central European data center services market. Seeing the growing demand for data center services, the GTS group announced its expansion plans in March 2010; in the summer of 2010 it expanded its Polish data centers by 500 square meters and also opened a new 700 square meter facility in Prague, Czech Republic. In addition to the acquisition of the Hungarian Interware, recent GTS group acquisitions of Romanian operator, Datek, and Slovak operator, Dial Telecom, have also been important steps toward reaching the strategic objective.
At present the GTS group operates a total of ten data centers in the Czech Republic,
Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Romania with an overall floor space of 8,000 square meters, servicing over 10,000 servers, which makes the Company one of the largest data center providers in the CEE region.
“We are strongly committed to continuous development in meeting our customers’
demand, and I’m convinced that they appreciate our ambitious efforts to become the
leading provider of data center services in the region,” said Adam Sawicki, Group CEO at GTS Central Europe. “With the Interware acquisition GTS group will further strengthen its position in the Hungarian and regional business telecommunications market,” he added.
About GTS Group:
GTS Central Europe (GTS) is a leading provider of integrated telecommunications solutions in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. GTS has an extensive regional fibre optic network throughout the CEE region with network extensions to neighbouring countries such as Austria, the Balkans, the Baltic States, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine. In the CEE countries of Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania, GTS has deep metro networks which provide voice, data, IP, MPLS and broadband communication services for local business customers as well as telecommunication carriers, mobile operators and content providers. GTS CE was awarded the “Best Wholesale Offering of Central and Eastern Europe” award by Capacity magazine in 2005, 2007 and 2009. In 2009,
GTS generated revenues of EUR 384.5 million and EBITDA of EUR 86.0 million.
GTS is owned by a consortium of private equity investors, led by Columbia Capital and M/C Venture Partners, US-based investors with extensive experience in the communications and technology-enabled services sectors, as well as Innova Capital, a leading private equity group focused on Central Europe. HarbourVest Partners, Oak Investment Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners round out the Consortium.
More information is available at www.gtsce.com.
About GTS Hungary
GTS Hungary Távközlési Kft. (formerly: GTS DataNet Telecommunications Company Plc.) is Hungary’s leading alternative telecommunications company that offers a broad range of telephone, internet and data services in the entire territory of the country, and through its parent GTS Central Europe, in the entire Central European region.
GTS Hungary’s product portfolio comprises everything from the classic ISDN telephone service through ADSL and leased line internet, server hosting and colocation services to the most cutting edge international IP VPN and Ethernet based solutions, which means that it can satisfy the demands of residential customers, small and medium-sized businesses, large companies, multinational corporations and government agencies alike.
GTS Hungary owns a national optical backbone network with a length exceeding 2,200 km and 80 x 10 Gigabit/s capacity.
Further information:
Agnieszka Chrzanowska, phone: +48 22 488 8082, mobile phone: +48 695 911 072, e-mail: agnieszka.chrzanowska@gtsce.com
