Ekuinas acquires 40 pct stake in Exabytes for RM44 million

KUCHING: Ekuiti Nasional Bhd ( Ekuinas) has expanded its business portfolio by acquiring a 40 per cent stake in web hosting and cloud service provider, Exabytes Capital Group ( Exabytes) for RM44 million.

Ekuinas has the option to increase its stake up to 54 per cent, it said in a statement yesterday.

Launched in 2001, Exabytes serves more than 100,000 customers in Southeast Asia, ranging from individuals, small to medium- sized enterprises ( SMEs), public listed companies and government agencies.

It said with a market share of nearly 30 per cent in Malaysia and 18-year track record of strong service, Exabytes is expected to scale especially with the growth of the industry.

Ekuinas chief executive officer Syed Yasir Arafat Syed Abd Kadir said through Exabytes, Ekuinas would be able to capitalise on the booming internet economy globally, which is currently valued at US$ 3.5 trillion.

“We are investing in and nurturing high-potential local companies that are ready to scale and compete regionally, if not globally.

“Exabytes is a prime example of a company that has the platform to be a regional leader that can position Malaysia as a hub for business and talent,” he said.

Syed Yasir Arafat said this was Ekuinas’ second investment in technology services and confident that Exabytes will continue its growth trajectory of nine per cent annual ly, driven by increasing internet penetration and digitalisation of businesses.

Exabytes founder and chief executive officer Kee Siak Chan added that the company will be improving on its hyper- local approach to services, technology and marketing.

“This approach has worked well and brought us to where we are today as one of the leading cloud companies in the region with data centres in multiple countries with strong local support teams.

“We will be leveraging on our brand premium, especially in Indonesia to drive customer acquisition through marketing and upsel ling higher value services, as well as expanding our capabilities and offerings into cloud and digital marketing to further beef up our end-to- end web solutions,” he said.