By Krystal Hu
(Reuters) – Private equity firm Centerbridge Partners is preparing a sale of Ahead Inc in a deal that could value the enterprise cloud solutions provider at more than $3 billion including debt, according to people familiar with the matter.
Centerbridge has interviewed banks to hire a financial adviser for the sale and is expected to launch a process later this summer, the sources said.
Chicago-based Ahead is expected to generate $2.5 billion in revenue this year, up from $2.2 billion in 2021, with annual earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of more than $230 million, the sources added.
The sources requested anonymity because the matter is confidential. A spokesperson for Centerbridge declined to comment.
Centerbridge acquired a majority stake in Ahead from buyout firm Court Square for $1.3 billion in August 2020. At the time, Berkshire Partners also took a minority stake in Ahead.
Ahead has expanded its services capabilities in enterprise cloud infrastructure management, monitoring and analytics, serving large enterprises including Lowe’s Companies Inc and Cisco Systems Inc.
By partnering with cloud-based software companies including ServiceNow Inc and VMware Inc, Ahead has benefited from the accelerated cloud adoption during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Under Centerbridge’s ownership, Ahead has also grown through acquisitions, including the purchase of data and analytics consultant Vertical Trail in 2021, and IT solutions provider vCORE Technology Partners in March 2022.
Presidio Inc, another IT service firm backed by buyout firm BC Partners, is also running a sale process that could fetch a valuation of $4 billion, Reuters reported earlier this month.
(Reporting by Krystal Hu in New York, additional reporting by Chibuike Ough in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
