CIT Group announced that it served as sole lead arranger and administrative agent in a $90 million senior secured credit facility to support vXchnge Holdings’ (vXchnge) acquisition of eight datacenters. vXchnge is a portfolio company of The Stephens Group, a private equity firm located in Little Rock, Arkansas. Financing was provided by CIT Bank, the U.S. commercial bank subsidiary of CIT.
Based in Tampa, Florida, vXchnge is a provider of colocation services and was formed in 2013 with the support of the Stephens Group. Keith Olsen, the former Chief Executive Officer of Switch & Data, is leading the vXchnge organization. Olsen brought together the former Switch & Data Executive Leadership Team as well as other industry leaders to build the next-generation datacenter services company across North America. Previously, from 2004 to 2010, CIT arranged more than $680 million in financing to Switch & Data to support its growth initiatives.
“The acquisition of these eight datacenters expands our footprint to 15 datacenters,” said Olsen, who is now Chairman and CEO of vXchnge. “The company is expanding its capacities, markets and customer base in key markets across North America. The new data centers are located in Austin, Minneapolis, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Portland, Raleigh-Durham, St. Louis and St. Paul.”
“We are pleased to provide this acquisition financing to vXchnge to help position the company to meet the increasing demand for secure and scalable datacenters,” said Tom Westdyk, Group Head and Managing Director of CIT Corporate Finance, Communications, Information Services & Technology. “With this acquisition vXchnge increases its opportunity to meet the growing market demand of the Internet of Things, driven by the significant increase in networked devices, new applications and cloud technology deployments. The North American Internet datacenter market is estimated to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 13% through 2016. Demand for colocation space continues to outpace supply, driven by growth in broadband and internet protocol-based applications, including video, music and social media sites, and the adoption of devices such as smart phones and network-based business applications such as cloud computing.”
Joe Junda, Managing Director of CIT Corporate Finance, Communications, Information Services & Technology, added: “This strategic acquisition provides further geographic diversity for vXchnge as the combined entity provides scalable infrastructure and will consist of 15 datacenters in metropolitan locations across many markets. We’ve had the pleasure of working with their experienced management team for more than a decade and are very supportive of the combination. With the backing of a strong financial sponsor such as The Stephens Group and favorable macro growth demand drivers, the company is well positioned for future growth.”
vXchnge is a leading carrier-neutral colocation services provider dedicated to improving the business performance of its customers. vXchnge’s broad geographic footprint puts its customers at “the Edge”—in locations where they can serve customers locally and reach more businesses and consumers, in more markets.