GE Capital’s Telecom, Media and Technology (TMT) financing business announced that it served as administrative agent on a $117.3 million senior secured credit facility to support ABRY Partners’ majority ownership position in KORE Wireless Group, Inc. GE Capital Markets served as joint lead arranger and joint bookrunner on the facility.
Founded in 2003 and headquartered in Atlanta, KORE is an independent managed connectivity service provider focused on the machine-to-machine (M2M) ecosystem. KORE supports 1.5 million wireless devices for more than 800 customers and provides a network footprint spanning more than 180 countries, the world’s oceans and areas not covered by cellular service through its network centers in Atlanta and Las Vegas as well as Melbourne, Australia.
“Machine-to-machine communications is an expanding, exciting industry. GE Capital’s telecom expertise and certainty of execution made it the ideal lender for this acquisition. We look forward to continuing our financing relationship and collaborating with GE Capital in the M2M space,” said Rob Nicewicz, vice president at ABRY Partners.
“Today, machines are able to communicate and coordinate with each other in entirely new ways, driving rapid expansion within the M2M space. We’re excited to provide financing in support of ABRY and the KORE team as they continue to grow in this sector,” said Sean Sullivan, a senior vice president with GE Capital’s TMT business.
KORE is the world’s largest wireless network provider specializing exclusively in the rapidly expanding global M2M communications market. Providing unified control and management for cellular and satellite network service delivery in more than 180 countries worldwide, KORE empowers its application, hardware and wireless operator partners to efficiently deliver M2M solutions for connected devices across the globe. M2M applications in industries as diverse as healthcare, utilities, enterprise IT, transaction processing and fleet management rely on the KORE network to deliver operational efficiencies and cost savings. KORE offers a range of technologies — including GSM, HSPA, CDMA EV-DO and LTE, as well as satellite services.
Founded in 1989, ABRY is an experienced media, communications and business information services sector-focused private equity investment firm. It has completed more than $42 billion in transactions representing investments in more than 450 properties. The firm is currently investing more than $4.3 billion of total capital via a $1.9 billion private equity fund, $950 million senior equity/mezzanine fund and a $1.5 billion senior debt fund.
Providing more than $5.5 billion in financing in 2013 across 59 transactions, GE Capital’s Telecom, Media and Technology (TMT) business is a leader in the middle market, providing financing solutions to enable corporate growth, acquisitions and balance sheet refinancings to companies in the following industries: Cable, towers, data centers, wireless, metro fiber, radio, TV, digital media, education services and software. It also finances technology companies that enable these industries.