Lok’nStore Acquires Saracen Datastore

Lok’nStore the AIM listed self-storage group has bought Surrey based Saracen Datastore for a price of £4 million cash. For the year ended 31 December 2010, Saracen achieved turnover of £1.6 million and EBITDA of £0.4 million. Lok’nStore has an enterprise value of around £50 million and will fund the acquisition out of its existing £40 million revolving debt facility.

 

Lok’nStore has turnover of around £10 million from its 22 self-storage centres across South-East England and around 500 customers for its self-service archive storage units. The acquisition of Saracen broadens its product offering into serviced archive storage and Saracen’s strong growth is an attractive entry point into this marketplace.

 

Leo Kane the current managing director of Saracen who has been with the business since 1995  has retained a significant stake and will continue to run the business.

 

Commenting on the acquisition, Andrew Jacobs CEO of Lok’nStore said “We have been looking to broaden our offering to clients and the acquisition of Saracen is an excellent entry point to a wide market segment complimenting our existing self-storage activities. This acquisition extends our existing self-serve archive service which we provide to around 500 customers.  The acquisition will add over 300 customers and be highly accretive* furthering our focus on increasing cash generation from the business.”

 

Leo Kane MD of Saracen said “Saracen has created a strong base for future growth and joining the Lok’nStore Group will provide further impetus to the business. I am excited about working with Lok’nStore to achieve the full potential of this business”

 

Informative:

 

Saracen have been helping businesses across the UK sort their records for 20 years.    Saracen’s core business is Offsite Archiving & Document & Media storage, also providing secure document and media destruction and scanning services.

 

Saracen has over 500 Records Management customers across a wide range of industries and public sector bodies and operates from four locations across the South East