Deal Announcements

Opals provides telecommunications infrastructure services across all disciplines of digital communications networks, from its headquarters in Peterborough. The company particularly brings a wealth of specialist fibre experience to Private Equity backed OCU, helping to support Instalcom (an OCU Group subsidiary) as it develops and expands its fast-growing telecoms offering across the South and in particular the East of England.

About OCU Group:

OCU Group is an innovative service provider in the Utilities Industry; operating on a national scale.  The Company delivers a wide range of customer-focused business solutions throughout the UK and Ireland, working with a large blue-chip client base in all utility areas including; Power, Telecoms, Water, Oil & Gas, Rail and Directional Drilling.

On the 4^th August 2022, OCU was acquired by Triton Partners, one of Europe’s leading investment firms.  Triton was founded in 1997, with a belief in engaging with boards, manager and employees to build better businesses, primarily in Northern Europe.

Instalcom is the Southern Delivery trading division within OCU and is a fast-growing organisation that prides itself on being innovative utility engineering experts that always provide an exceptional level of service for our clients and the millions of customers associated with them.

About Triton:

Since its establishment in 1997, Triton has sponsored ten funds, focusing on businesses in the industrial tech, services, consumer, and healthcare sectors. Triton invests in and supports the positive development of medium-sized businesses headquartered in Europe.

Triton seeks to contribute to the building of better businesses for the longer term. Triton and its executives wish to be agents of positive change towards sustainable operational improvement and growth.

The companies currently in Triton’s portfolio have combined sales of around EUR 18.1 billion and employ around 104,000 employees.

About Opals Group:

Opals started trading in 2012 and has grown within the industry to become an established and leading network infrastructure services company, offering an extensive range of complimentary services covering civil engineering, fibre optics and traffic management.

Working with network operators to design, build, maintain and repair full fibre network infrastructure, Opals’ customer base includes Upp, Netomnia and Openreach where they provide a total delivery solution from their East of England head-office in Peterborough.

Bishopsgate further demonstrates its capabilities in the technology and software sector by successfully advising supply chain EDI software provider Data Interchange on the sale to US based Epicor

For over 30 years Data Interchange has been developing pioneering technology for data communication. The Company now employs over 100 EDI specialists across Europe generating a turnover of £9m with high levels of SaaS revenue. The Company has a blue chip customer base and works with some of the biggest brands in the world.

Data Interchange’s B2B integration software solutions – including the company’s DiNet global EDI Network, Odex B2B communications platform, Darwin order processing solution, and XE EDI mapping tool – will help Epicor customers streamline their supply chain strategies, providing a single-source of truth to more closely manage supplier relationships, automate business processes, and plan for changing business needs. That includes support for European market protocols and standards such as OFTP2, EDIFACT, VDA, TRADACOMS and PEPPOL.

Epicor is a business software company owned by Private Equity House – Clayton, Dubilier & Rice that is based in Austin, Texas. Epicor provides enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM) and human capital management (HCM) software to business customers in the manufacturing, distribution, lumber/building materials, retail and automobile verticals globally.

The Data Interchange acquisition expands the reach of Epicor in European markets and adds to the company’s portfolio of B2B integration technologies, empowering customers to connect businesses and trading partners, increase efficiency, and drive value in the supply chain.

Bishopsgate is delighted to announce the sale of Edtech provider Pellcomp to Advanced Software further demonstrating their deep sector knowledge across the software and Edtech industries.

Pellcomp software is the market leading Case Management System (CMS) and Learning Management System (LMS) software provider to 500 UK training and employability providers. Pellcomp’s PICS platform supports the end-to-end onboarding, employer engagement, administration, delivery and management of ESFA funded and commercially delivered learning programs and provides case management for Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) employability contracts.

Advanced Software is the third largest software and services company in the UK and is owned by Private Equity firms Vista and BC Partners. Following several recent acquisitions in the education industry of digital learning provider, Smart Apprentices and functional skills provider, bksb, the acquisition of Pellcomp will see Advanced Education further extend its breadth of solutions into the education sector supporting the rapid acceleration of digital learning that prioritise the learner experience for colleges, employers and private training providers.

Gordon Wilson, CEO of Advanced comments: “We are currently seeing a rapid adoption of digital learning models with learners increasingly seeing them as more convenient and valuable compared to traditional classroom learning. This combined with personalised learning, collaborative models and a growth in gamification is transforming the sector. Skills and training providers are seeking out technology solutions to gain greater control and transparency of their learners’ progress and attainment as well as looking for tighter budgetary, funding and compliance management. This acquisition will enable Advanced Education to offer a full 360 degree learning and skills platform giving employers, colleges and private training providers an intuitive learning and skills management solution.”

The acquisition reinforces Advanced’s ambition and determined growth trajectory to become the UK’s best software and services provider.