ABOUT ARDIAN

The quote “A little rain never hurt anybody” is not a wise recommendation. At least not if you ask EQT portfolio company StormGeo – the leading provider of weather intelligence and decision support for companies operating in tough climate conditions at sea and onshore. With the acquisition of Nautisk, a global leader within digital charts and publications, StormGeo takes an important step in becoming a one-stop-shop for digital navigation and planning for the modern maritime industry.

In times of increasing climate change and extreme weather, the need for agile and foreseeable forecasting has never been greater. Headquartered in Bergen, Norway, StormGeo is a trusted partner for companies operating in challenging weather conditions within shipping, oil and gas, renewable energy, aviation, media and cross industries.The company’s diverse employee base, consisting of meteorologists, oceanographers and data scientists, provides tailored weather decision support and route guidance to over 9,000 ships and 1,300 offshore locations on a 24/7 basis, amongst other services.

The add-on of Nautisk is a strategic step in StormGeo’s mission to provide the most innovative and future-proof decision support solutions and services for weather-sensitive operations. With more than 100 years of industry experience, Nautisk offers state-of-the-art digital solutions for vessel navigation, including charts, voyage planning and a digital publication library. Nautisk complements StormGeo’s current maritime solutions and with the add-on, StormGeo will create a unified and complete onboard-to-onshore software platform for maritime navigation and planning.

Rikke Kjær Nielsen, Partner at EQT Partners and Investment Advisor to EQT Mid Market, comments: “The acquisition of Nautisk aligns well with StormGeo’s ambition of becoming the undisputed global leader within premier shipping services. With the combination of Nautisk, StormGeo further cements its position as an industry leader within digital solutions, enabling it to be a trusted partner to its customers on their digital journeys. EQT is excited to support the management team through the next phase of digital transformation”.

Since EQT Mid Market’s acquisition of StormGeo in April 2014, the company has expanded steadily and has grown to become a truly global champion within its sector. Following the acquisition of Nautisk, StormGeo will employ more than 400 employees from 27 offices, including six operations centers operating 24/7/365 supporting customers worldwide, across 15 countries.

During its ownership period, EQT has supported StormGeo in accelerating its digital transformation and strengthening its analytical offering. Actions include completing the strategic add-on acquisition and integration of Silicon Valley-based leader within ship routing and fleet performance, Applied Weather Technology (AWT), as well as launching “Advanced Fleet DSS”, a fleet performance software allowing customers to optimize their fuel consumption based on advanced analytics.

Moreover, StormGeo continues to invest substantially in future-proofing its portfolio to offer its customers state-of-the-art services through the research and development of next generation products within machine learning and advanced analytics.

wtransnet is the leading freight exchange in Spain and Portugal with a growing footprint in countries such as Italy, France and Germany. wtransnet is owned by Wotrant SL, founded in 1996 and headquartered in Terrassa, Spain. Wotrant has shown attractive growth in the past and created an appealing product that is used by more than 11,500 customers. wtransnet differentiates itself from its competitors with a strong focus on ensuring trust between users of the platform, for example by thoroughly screening any new carrier.

Alpega’s freight exchanges Teleroute, Bursa and 123cargo focus on other geographic areas such as France, Benelux and Romania. The combination with wtransnet promises an increase of the liquidity in terms of shipments and trucks for all freight exchanges in the Group. This will improve the value proposition to customers who will be able to access a wider market in the future. It is envisaged that all freight exchange brands in the Group, including wtransnet, continue to operate in the market with different geographical focus areas.

Alpega intends to continue its investments in innovating freight exchange products to further improve their attractiveness to customers by adding functionalities allowing for more convenience and higher efficiency in the daily use of the products.

The management of Alpega, as well its majority shareholder Castik Capital, are grateful to the founders of Wotrant SL, Jaume Esteve, Anna Esteve, Salvador Ejarque, Carmen Grau and Josép Maria Sallés about the opportunity to partner with Wotrant as this is an exciting strategic addition to the Group.

With the addition of wtransnet, Alpega is growing its carrier network to significantly more than 70,000 members across Europe, which provides for a strong value-add to its customers. Alpega was formed in 2017 as a leading global logistics software company that offers end-to-end solutions covering all transport needs, including transportation management solutions (“TMS”) and freight exchanges. Key products comprise:

• inet – TMS solution for complex, multi-modal global transportation networks including advanced analytics and 4flow vista®, an integrated transport planning and optimization software
• TenderEasy – Freight procurement solution allowing its customers to run tenders across verticals, geographies and modes
• Transwide – Modular TMS solution for shippers, logistics service providers and carriers to manage the end-to-end execution of transports
• TAS-tms – Modular TMS solution that enables carriers and freight forwarders to manage the entire transport process
• Teleroute, Bursa and 123cargo – Pan-European freight exchanges that connect to more than 50,000 carriers to offer and allocate shipments and trucks

About Castik Capital
Castik Capital S.à r.l. (“Castik Capital”) manages investments in private equity. Castik Capital is a European multi-strategy investment manager, acquiring significant ownership positions in European private and public companies, where long-term value can be generated through active partnerships with management teams.

Castik Capital has an investment horizon of up to ten years – longer than most other private equity funds. This enables Castik Capital to focus resources on its portfolio companies and ensure sustainable, long-term value creation.

Founded in 2014, Castik Capital is based in Luxembourg and focuses on identifying and developing investment opportunities across Europe. Investments are made by the Luxembourg-based fund, EPIC I SLP, the first fund managed by Castik Capital, which had its final close at EUR 1bn in July 2015.

Oakley Capital Private Equity III (“Fund III”) is pleased to announce an agreement to invest in cPanel.  WebPros BV, the holding company that owns Plesk and Solus VM, is acquiring a majority stake in cPanel from its founder J. Nick Koston. Fund III first invested in WebPros in April 2017 in order to acquire Plesk, which has performed very strongly since. The transaction is partly funded by an extension of the unitranche debt facility from WebPros’ existing lender TPG.  Fund III will make a further investment of $50 million into WebPros as part of this transaction. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval.

Established in 1997 by CEO J. Nick Koston, cPanel provides one of the internet infrastructure industry’s most reliable and intuitive control panel software platforms.  With its rich feature set and customer first support, the fully-automated hosting platform empowers infrastructure providers and gives customers the ability to administer every facet of their website using simple, point-and-click software.  Based in Houston, Texas, cPanel employs over 220 colleagues and has customers in more than 70 countries.

This transaction is a continuation of Oakley’s strategy to acquire leading internet infrastructure software businesses.  It will keep its companies’ products active, supported and developed.  Oakley is committed to making significant investments into, and growing headcount in, cPanel’s Houston headquarters.

Peter Dubens, Managing Partner of Oakley Capital Private Equity, commented:

“We are delighted to have the opportunity to acquire one of the most well-respected businesses in internet infrastructure software.  Oakley has significant experience of investing in this sector, and we look forward to working with Nick and the team to continue cPanel’s growth.”

Nick Koston, CEO of cPanel, Inc. commented:

“This investment reflects a great step forward for cPanel.  Our team has developed software that contributes to the success of millions of websites operating globally and looks forward to continuing to do so with the same passion that our loyal  customers have come to love.  This investment will give internet infrastructure providers access to a wider range of software, features and support.  I am excited about what the future holds for the company and the great team at cPanel.”