Hg takes further stake in DADA

Hg announced further investment in DADA - a provider of online hosting services to SMEs in Italy, the UK and other regions across Europe - on Monday.

The company said DADA, headquartered in Florence, has around 650,000 business and consumer customers across Europe.

Its digital services enable SMEs to administer their online presence - creating, managing and hosting domains and websites.

As well as operating in Italy under the Register.it brand, DADA also operates in the UK, Ireland, Spain, France, Portugal and the Netherlands under the Namesco, Register365, Nominalia and Amen brands, respectively.

The investment process followed an initial investment for a majority stake of 69.432% in DADA, made by Hg's technology team in October last year, and acquired from a subsidiary of Orascom TMT Investments.

Hg said it has now successfully completed a tender offer on the remaining ordinary shares and would complete a public-to-private transaction of DADA from the Italian Stock Exchange.

“DADA is a leading business in this hosting sector which we have admired for a number of years,” said Nick Jordan, partner at Hg.

“We are excited about the opportunity to work with the DADA management team and its employees to continue to develop their business in Italy and across Europe organically and through acquisitions.

“Hg [has] extensive experience of investing in SME-focused technology businesses and we are well placed to partner with DADA for the next phase of their growth.”

Enrico Grasso, director at Hg, added that the company was “delighted” to partner with DADA's management team to continue to support Italian SMEs in their journey to become more digitally-enabled and increase their online visibility.

“This is Hg's third investment in Italy over the last two years, testament to our continued interest in the region and Italian businesses.

“Italy has an important fabric of small and medium enterprises that have unique skills, know-how, and an opportunity to grow internationally.”