Macquarie Capital Principal Finance acquires majority stake in Wavenet Group Holdings Limited

Macquarie Capital Principal Finance (Macquarie Capital) has today announced the majority acquisition of Wavenet Group Holdings Limited (Wavenet), a multi-award-winning provider of telecoms and technology solutions – serving thousands of small and medium-sized businesses and enterprises across the United Kingdom (UK).

Wavenet has built on a solid foundation for growth over the last five years, with a focus on future technologies and digital transformation that will drive the industry and its customers. The new partnership with Macquarie Capital will boost this growth potential, by providing both expertise and flexible growth capital. This will enable more investment in the people at Wavenet and provide a renewed focus on strategic acquisitions.

Wavenet helps over 8,000 small and medium sized UK businesses and public sector bodies with the procurement and management of data, voice, contact centre, IT and technology services – supporting the adoption of innovative new technologies at a lower cost than would have been available directly. Founded in 2000, Wavenet is headquartered in Birmingham, England, employs with supporting offices in Solihull, Chester, Norwich, Cardiff, St Albans and Nottingham. Macquarie Capital has acquired the majority stake in the business previously held by Beech Tree Private Equity.

Current clients include the UK’s Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) which has recently awarded Wavenet a five-year contract to transform contact centre services and allows the DVLA to provide 24/7 support to its customers.

Bill Dawson, CEO at Wavenet commented: “I am extremely grateful for Beech Tree’s support and advice over the last five years, the team have been integral in empowering the expansion and development which has resulted in our fantastic growth. As a team, we are excited to continue to build on this growth as we enter our new partnership with Macquarie. I am confident that the passion and quality of our people, management and infrastructure combined with Macquarie’s experience will drive us to even greater success in the future.”

Adam Joseph, Head of Private Equity for Macquarie Capital Principal Finance Europe, said: “We are delighted to partner with the Wavenet team and help them continue their strong growth trajectory. This investment provides us with a unique opportunity to deploy our flexible capital to grow a leading UK technology service provider at a time when organisations across the country are looking for increasingly innovative technology solutions.

“Wavenet's focus on supporting companies through their digital transformation is an important and valuable one as businesses grasp the opportunities from future technologies.  We are looking forward to using our experience from growing other UK businesses to support the development of Wavenet both from an organic and acquisitive standpoint.”

Over the past five years, Wavenet has grown rapidly from £14 million turnover in 2016 to over £60 million in 2021, through a mixture of acquisitions and strong organic growth. There has also been significant investment made in the people, network, products and systems, which has resulted in Wavenet being able to support large scale enterprise solutions including their recent win of DVLA’s contact centre and back-office.

Paul Franks, Managing Partner at Beech Tree Private Equity said “We are delighted to have worked with Bill and the management team at Wavenet over the past five years. The business has grown substantially – both in scale and capability, including eight bolt-on acquisitions. Wavenet is now one of the stand-out unified communications players in the UK market. I wish Macquarie and Wavenet every success for the future.”

The Wavenet transaction follows other successful Macquarie Capital investments in UK medium sized businesses and builds on its track record of providing growth capital and flexible financing solutions. Macquarie Capital Principal Finance has worked with a variety of small to medium sized businesses, covering a variety of sectors – including technical services, healthcare and technology companies.

The financial terms of the transaction remain undisclosed.

About Wavenet

Formed in 2000, Wavenet has grown through the last two decades to become a respected, multi-award-winning provider of telecoms and technology solutions to thousands of businesses and enterprises across the UK. Providing data, voice, contact centre, IT and technology services to over 8,000 SME and enterprise customers, Wavenet has offices in Solihull, Chester, Norwich, Cardiff, St Albans and Nottingham and employs over 200 people, including over 100 trained support staff and engineers. For more information, visit: www.wavenetuk.com

About Beech Tree Private Equity

Beech Tree Private Equity invests between £10m and £40m in any one business. Funding can be used to support management buy-outs, provide cash out to owner-managers, fund acquisitions and organic growth initiatives. Sectors include financial services, support services and technology and in all cases Beech Tree looks for platform businesses in which they can invest further to accelerate organic growth and, often, also pursue acquisition strategies.