Business Description
- Guardian IT was an IT services company that had a market leading position in the emerging area of disaster recovery and business continuity services for all key hardware platforms
Investment Rationale
- Guardian IT had three to five year contracted revenues paid annually in advance providing it with highly attractive visibility of forward earnings and excellent cash flow profile
- The market for disaster recovery services was high growth
- Having been acquired from ICL plc diversification away from ICL market and hardware provided additional potential for growth
| Strategy/Value Creation
- ECI introduced an experienced chairman to the company to strengthen the management team and he substantially assisted the company’s strategic and operational development as well as remaining in place for the 1998 flotation
- Completed 5 significant acquisitions between investment and flotation
- Expanded its base in 3 continental European countries as well as providing additional platforms including IBM, HP, Sun, Sequent and Data General
Performance
- Strong organic revenue growth throughout the period of investment with revenues and profits increasing more than five times between 1994 to 1999
- Guardian IT floated on the LSE in March 1998 with a total transaction value of £233m. ECI's poceeds represented a return of 23x cost and a 112% IRR.
- The business was subsequently acquired by SunGard
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