Oasis Group looks forward with ambition as acquisitions spree gathers pace

THE Dublin-based records and information-management company Oasis Group has acquired a Cork document-storage business, making it the company’s 28th acquisition.

Oasis has completed the purchase of Federal Archive, which is based in Kinsale. It is the company’s eighth deal since last October.

“This region was always a key area of interest for Oasis and Cork has provided us with a prime location”, said Brian Connolly, chief executive officer of Oasis Group.

“Increasing our footprint domestically and expanding our reach locally provides us with an opportunity to build on our offerings and existing relationships.”

Set up in 1999, Oasis is one of the largest record and information management (RIM) companies in Europe. It employs over 300 people and provides services to over 5,000 companies throughout several industries, including the financial, legal, healthcare, government and educational sectors.

Oasis Group now operates across Europe and market sources believe the ambitious company now has an ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) well in excess of €10m. In May, the company bought a Scottish company, Removal Services Scotland based near Edinburgh. It had entered the Scottish market in December 2016 with another acquisition.

In that month, it also bought the RIM business of National Archive Records Management, located in Limerick. Other acquisitions late last year included deals in the UK and the Netherlands.

Oasis Group is owned by two US-based private equity funds, Housatonic Partners and Sverica International. It has debt funding from an arm of Goldman Sachs.

Last May, it was announced that a €30m addon to the senior facilities provided by Goldman Sachs Specialty Lending Group had been arranged for Oasis. At the time, the company said that debt was to finance Oasis’s “external growth strategy, mostly focused on Western Europe”. The document-storage business is extremely fragmented and sources said that Oasis sees itself as a consolidator in the sector.

Many of the companies are very profitable but lack modern technological infrastructure and Oasis can offer clients a range of additional services around new areas, such as data protection.