(General Atlantic) March 27, 2012 – Aceco TI, the leading company focused on design and maintenance of data centers in Brazil and Latin America, today announced that General Atlantic LLC (“GA”), a global growth equity firm, has made an investment in Aceco TI for a minority stake in the company. This partnership will provide capital and strategic advice for Aceco TI as it continues to grow in Brazil and Latin America.
“General Atlantic’s investment is an important step to support our expansion, to strengthen our business and to realize our full potential. Together, we can further accelerate the company’s growth in Brazil and throughout Latin America,” said Jorge Nitzan, Chief Executive Officer of Aceco TI.
“We are excited to partner with Aceco TI and have been impressed by the management team’s technical knowledge, in addition to the quality of corporate governance within the company,” said Philip Trahanas, Managing Director of General Atlantic and Global Head of the firm’s Business Services sector. “Aceco TI will play an important role in the continued build-out of data center capacity in the region, to support the growing demand for IT, cloud computing and Internet infrastructure. We look forward to working with the Aceco TI team as the company continues to grow.”
On the verge of its 40th anniversary, Aceco TI has built its leadership position by providing customized data center solutions and high quality services to its customers. It has built more than 500 data centers in Brazil and Latin America throughout its history and currently has 50 data centers under construction. In the past ten years, Aceco TI has grown 25 fold and achieved over R$ 500 million in new sales bookings in 2011. More than 85% of the data centers in South America certified as Tier III by the UpTime Institute were designed or constructed by Aceco TI.
“Our expansion is the result of the growing need of companies and governments in Brazil and Latin America for data storage with security, flexibility and efficiency at an economic cost. Our ability to quickly provide high performance and customized ‘end to end’ solutions to our customers has positioned us as the industry leader. Our clients seek expertise and dedication 24 hours a day / 7 days a week, and we offer this through a team of highly skilled professionals,” explained Mr. Nitzan.
General Atlantic has built a reputation of helping companies with their strategic growth plans throughout its 31-year history. GA identified Aceco TI as an attractive investment in a large growth market with a strong management team, deep capabilities in technology and a compelling value proposition to its clients. The investment in Aceco TI is consistent with General Atlantic’s mission of partnering with high quality companies and adding value through the skill, knowledge and experience of its professionals based in Brazil and around the world. Including Aceco TI, General Atlantic has made a total of seven investments in Latin America since 2007: MercadoLibre, BM&F Bovespa, Qualicorp, Peixe Urbano, Linx and Sura Asset Management.
Aceco TI and its shareholders, who were advised by J.P. Morgan on this transaction, are proud to continue serving the company’s clients with focus and dedication while maintaining a superior level of service.
About Aceco TI
Aceco TI has a history of almost 40 years dedicated exclusively to the engineering of secure data centers with high levels of availability, having built more than 500 data centers in Brazil and Latin America, many of them with certified and accredited safe rooms. Aceco TI is the only company in Brazil that holds the NBR 15247 certificate for safe rooms. The company is currently involved in the construction of approximately 50 data centers, with a delivery rate of one every five days. Headquartered in São Paulo, with branches in Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro, the interior of São Paulo, Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Peru and representatives in Panama, Costa Rica, Paraguay and Venezuela, Aceco TI is present both in the construction and maintenance of Tier II, III and IV data centers and in certified and accredited tight-protected safe rooms. The projects are modular, scalable and flexible to updates and upgrades.
About General Atlantic
General Atlantic is a leading global growth equity firm providing capital and strategic support for growth companies. GA combines a collaborative global approach, sector specific expertise, a long-term investment horizon and a deep understanding of growth drivers to partner with great management and build exceptional businesses worldwide. Established in 1980, GA manages US$ 17 billion in capital and has more than 75 investment professionals based in Greenwich, New York, Palo Alto, London, Düsseldorf, Hong Kong, Beijing, Mumbai, Singapore and São Paulo. For further information and a listing of GA’s public and private portfolio companies, see www.generalatlantic.com.