CALGARY and DENVER – Shaw Communications announced today it will acquire a 100% interest in call centre company ViaWest from Oak Hill Capital Partners and other shareholders for an enterprise value of US$1.2 billion.
Based in Denver, ViaWest is one of the largest privately providers of data centre infrastructure, cloud technology and managed IT solutions in North America. It employs over 350 people and services more than 1,300 customers across Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Minnesota, Oregon Texas and Utah.
The Company has a strong record of financial growth and over the last decade, ViaWest has grown from five data centres in two markets to 27 data centres (with over 630,000 square feet of usable raised floor space) in eight key Western U.S. markets, including Denver, Dallas, Austin, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Portland, Minneapolis and Phoenix, reads the press release.
"The ViaWest acquisition provides Shaw a growth platform in the attractive data centre sector and is another significant step in expanding our technology offerings for mid-market enterprises in Western Canada, building on the growth from our 2013 Envision acquisition," said Shaw CEO, Brad Shaw, in a statement. "We identified the data centre sector as an attractive opportunity adjacent to our core business and with the acquisition of ViaWest, Shaw gains significant capabilities, scale and immediate expertise in the growing marketplace for enterprise data services. We plan to leverage the ViaWest management team's experience to accelerate the development of our Canadian data centre platform so that over time our Western Canadian customers will gain access to this industry-leading expertise for their own data management needs and scalable cloud solutions."
The current management team, led by Co-Founder, President & Chief Executive Officer Nancy Phillips, will continue to operate ViaWest from its Denver headquarters as a stand-alone wholly-owned subsidiary of Shaw, building upon its track record of profitable growth, says the release.
The acquisition is expected to close in September 2014 and is subject to U.S. regulatory approval. The purchase price of US$1.2 billion represents a multiple of approximately 13X adjusted EBITDA annualized for the three months ended June 30, 2014. The transaction will be funded using a combination of cash on hand and Shaw's existing credit facility and will have no material effect on Shaw's free cash flow. Considering Shaw's cash flow and the acquisition of ViaWest, Shaw's Board confirms its previously disclosed target dividend increase of 5% to 10% in fiscal 2015.
