ETC Group to Acquire Amadys

ETC Group (“ETC”), a leading global provider to the telecom network and technology infrastructure industry, announced today the acquisition of Amadys, a leading provider of end-to-end connectivity solutions in the Benelux, UK and DACH regions. The financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed.

Founded in 1993 by Cédric Varasteh, ETC is a provider of passive and active telecommunications equipment and tools, with leading technical and logistics solutions for network deployment, upgrades, and maintenance. Through its 30 years of extensive industry experience, ETC supports technologies including FTTH, FTTx, HFC, Wi-Fi, 5G/mobile, and data centres. ETC has more than 1,200 employees across more than 40 locations that span 14 countries including the US, France, UK, Germany, Portugal and Poland and supports more than 14,000 customers worldwide including major American and European operators and telecommunications service providers. The Group’s comprehensive portfolio of more than 55,000 products from nearly 1,000 industry-leading suppliers, along with its value-added supply chain solutions, supports carriers to deliver seamless high-speed internet, video, data, and voice services to residential, business, and mobile users.

Based in Antwerp, Amadys is a leading system integrator of end-to-end connectivity solutions for the telecom, infrastructure, and energy markets. Amadys serves more than 1,000 blue-chip customers and provides solutions from more than 500 suppliers across the UK, Benelux, DACH regions. The business is led by one of its founders, Hein Wilderjans, and has been majority owned by Equistone since 2019. Amadys’ management team, who are existing shareholders in the business, will reinvest in the transaction. Amadys recently received a certification from a leading provider of business sustainability ratings, demonstrating Amadys’ strong sustainability credentials, including from a supply chain perspective.

The combination of ETC and Amadys is highly complementary and is expected to provide opportunities for both organisations to leverage enhanced product offerings and capabilities, as well as to realise synergies across the combined business. The unification will also further enhance the management team, bringing together two highly entrepreneurial groups. The combined company’s distribution capabilities will support customers’ active and passive equipment needs for network deployments, upgrades, and maintenance during a time of increasing demand for high-speed connectivity across their combined footprint.

In October 2022, international private equity firm, Cinven, acquired a majority stake in ETC from Carlyle, with Cédric Varasteh and Carlyle Europe Technology Partners (“CETP”) reinvesting in significant minority stakes alongside Cinven.

Cédric Varasteh, Founder and Chairman of ETC, said: “Amadys is an exceptional business which we are very pleased to be integrating into ETC. The combination will further strengthen both companies materially, including across key areas such as product innovation, scale, and geographic reach. We believe that the impact will significantly benefit both customer bases. We are looking forward to working with Amadys’ impressive team. We have much to learn from each other and I’m thrilled about the opportunities that lay ahead as we bring these two great businesses together.”

Hein Wilderjans, CEO and Co-Founder of Amadys, added: “We are excited to be working with ETC in the next stage of Amadys’ development. Since 2016, we have grown almost exponentially, across revenue, employee count and product capabilities. We are looking forward to what we can achieve with ETC’s investment in this new capacity as a combined organisation. As our customers know, the central priority of our business has been the commitment to providing the best end-to-end solutions in the market and that will only continue with ETC.”

Thomas Railhac, Partner at Cinven commented: “This is an important milestone in ETC’s growth strategy, with Amadys providing broadened access to key markets, leverageable operational capabilities, and customer diversity. Amadys has grown extremely quickly over the past eight years, and we expect that growth path to continue under ETC’s management. Much like the recent acquisition of BTV Multimedia, Amadys will bolster ETC’s position as a leader in the sector, driving customer-service and value.”

Cyril Bourdarot, Managing Director on the Carlyle Europe Technology Partners (“CETP”) advisory team, said: “We believe the acquisition of Amadys – a high quality business which complements ETC’s existing platform – is another step towards ETC’s goal of creating a global, industry-leading multi-billion dollar provider to the telecom sector. Following the recently announced acquisitions of BTV Multimedia, TIBA, and Klonex-VCS, this deal demonstrates the continued strong momentum ETC has in executing its growth strategy.”

The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals.