The agreement was signed at 4:00 on 10 July in Warsaw, where the last round of negotiations was conducted by Value4Capital, the majority shareholder of Home.pl, and United Internet. They were handled by Marcin Kuśmierz, CEO and one of the shareholders of Home.pl. The value of the sale transaction exceeds slightly EUR 155 million, twice as much as the initial market value of the company. Although the transaction value is rather high, I believe it’s not exaggerated. As regards ratios, it is definitely one of the largest transactions in the industry not only in Poland but also worldwide, says Kuśmierz. A subsidiary of United Internet, 1&1 Internet, will be the new shareholder.

 

The close of the said transaction requires the approval of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, which is expected to be granted in the fall. Thus, the negotiations conducted over the past few months, have been completed. Talks were conducted with investment funds and industry investors, to include institutions and companies from around the world. They expressed great interest in the transaction and the process was extremely competitive. United Internet won by a hair’s breadth, says the CEO of Home.pl.

 

What will be the effect of the transaction on the Szczecin-based company? Not only the brand but also technologies, head office, entire management and all employees will stay in Szczecin. No changes should be expected here. According to United Internet, Home.pl is too strong a brand with a too important market position to change anything. On the other hand, we expect to gain access to the assets of the United Internet Group, which will have a positive effect on our know-how, development of competence and expansion opportunities, says Kuśmierz, who adds: We are more interested in what we can offer to the group. We suggested to our potential investor that Home.pl should assume responsibility for the group’s expansion in Central and Eastern Europe.

 

United Internet AG is a German hosting giant, whose shares have been listed on the stock exchange since 2003. It also operates under the brand of 1&1 Internet. The group employs almost 8 thousand people. The company operates not only in Europe but also in North America. The capitalization of United Internet is more than 10% higher than that of PKN Orlen and totals EUR 8.1 billion (PLN 34 billion). Last year, United Internet sales reached the level of ca. PLN 13 billion, while EBITDA ca. PLN 2.5 billion.

 

The company made an unsuccessful attempt to enter the Polish market in 2010, losing in a battle with Home.pl. Acquisition of Home.pl opens the way for United Internet to capture the Polish market of hosting services. I believe that was one of the key reasons for the investor to offer such a price, says Kuśmierz.

 

Home.pl was established in Szczecin in 1997. It is the major provider of Internet services to SMEs in Poland, with a particular focus on hosting and domain registration, IT online services, maintenance of e-mail accounts, provision of cloud-based business applications and software developed by such companies as Microsoft. The company has 350 thousand clients and 1.5 million users and employs ca. 250 people in its Szczecin office at Zbożowa street.

 

At present, shares in Home.pl are held by Value 4 Capital, an investment fund (since 2012), Piotr Kapcio, Krystian Stypuła and Stefan Jurczyk, the founders, as well as Marcin Kuśmierz, CEO.

 

AK