Royds Withy King advises on £38.7m private equity deal for Reading data centre operator

Published by

Nicky Godding

Law firm Royds Withy King has advised the shareholders and management team of Reading-based data centre owner and operator Amito Ltd on its significant minority investment from Harwood Private Equity.

From its award-winning Tier 3 facility in Reading, Amito Ltd delivers high quality, colocation services through a network of 20 facilities across the UK. The £38.7m investment, including follow-on funding, from Harwood will help support Amito’s next phase of growth.

The Royds Withy King team was led by corporate partner Iain Butler, assisted by Nicola Anderson and Rachel McCarthy.

Iain said: “Having acted for Amito for a number of years, we are incredibly pleased to help deliver this deal which will enable the business to go from strength to strength. It also underlines our commitment to further growth in the Thames Valley region. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, we have seen continued appetite from PE firms to make new investments in UK SMEs, particularly those with a technology focus as a greater reliance on e-commerce and a shift to cloud computing has bolstered the sector’s appeal. There’s no doubt this trend is set to continue.”

Commenting on the deal, Ed Butler (CEO of Amito) said: “Royds Withy King have really impressed us with their knowledge and expertise, and their support throughout the transaction was superb. We are very proud of Amito’s success so far and are keen to realise the next phase of our growth strategy alongside Harwood.”

Harwood were advised by BDB Pitmans LLP. Other advisors on the deal included MHA MacIntyre Hudson, Quantuma and Pinsent Masons.

Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe. After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts. She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.