Daisy spin off Digital Wholesale Solutions confirms private equity sale

Minority investment from Inflexion marks ‘final step’ in demerging DWS from Daisy Group

Daisy spin-off Digital Wholesale Solutions has confirmed that it has sold a minority stake in the business to private equity firm Inflexion.

Rumours were first revealed by The Financial Timesat the beginning of this week, claiming that a deal between DWS and Inflexion was clinched over the Christmas period.

DWS has now confirmed that Inflexion will make a "significant" minority investment in the business, which marks the "final" step in demerging DWS from the wider Daisy Group.

DWS claims the demerger values the business at £1bn.

The majority of Daisy Group's shareholders will reinvest directly into the DWS business, it claims.

DWS says that becoming an independent company will allow it to pursue its strategy of being the partner of choice across the industry.

The firm provides IT, communications and cloud products and services on a wholesale basis to more than 6,000 UK partners. IT works with vendors including Vodafone, O2, BT/EE, Microsoft, TTB and Virgin Media Business targeting resellers serving SME's with 10-250 employees.

Commenting on the investment from Inflexion, DWS CEO Terry O'Brien said: "The announcement today is brilliant news for DWS, brilliant news for our vendors and most importantly brilliant news for our partners. From the get-go, it was clear that Inflexion shared our excitement about the UK channel community and the huge potential for growth as SME's increase their investment in digital technology. I'm delighted that Inflexion is joining our team, where we are obsessed with building a great channel-only business, delivering great products and a great experience for partners through a great platform."

Daisy Group founder, Matt Riley (pictured), who will remain as chairman of DWS, added: "In a fast moving, dynamic, highly competitive market, with customers demanding more from their partners, we made a strategic decision to separate our direct and indirect businesses to provide better focus and agility.

"The change has re-ignited the growth in all our businesses and today's announcement is the next step on that journey. I'm delighted to welcome Inflexion onboard, who from first introduction recognised not only the quality of the DWS business but also its huge potential to grow in really exciting market conditions."

DWS was formed last year after Daisy rolled its three channel businesses (Daisy Wholesale, Daisy Distribution and Daisy Worldwide) into a new entity.