COLUMBUS, Ohio, Aug. 24, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Horizon, a
fiber-optic broadband company based in Columbus, Ohio, announces today that it and
its shareholders have entered into an agreement with GCM Grosvenor
(NASDAQ: GCMG), a leading global alternative asset management
solutions provider, to acquire a significant ownership stake of the
company. GCM Grosvenor will invest through its Labor Impact
Strategy and joins the existing investor group led by Novacap TMT,
one of Canada's leading private
equity firms. With this new partner, Horizon will continue its
growth strategy and dedication to providing fiber-based
connectivity services to businesses, carriers and residential
customers throughout Ohio and the
greater Midwest region.
Horizon, which began as a local telephone company over 120 years
ago, is a premier provider of fiber-optic bandwidth infrastructure
services operating primarily in Ohio. Over the last decade, Horizon has grown
its fiber network considerably and now services customers across
the Midwest.
Today, Horizon continues on this trajectory of continuous
growth, ensuring the evolving network needs of customers across the
region are being powerfully met with robust, first-class solutions.
Notably, Horizon has been launching Fiber to the Home (FTTH)
initiatives, having recently completed an initial greenfield fiber
build in Circleville, Ohio. Six
more builds are currently in the works, and the company is
continuing to seek out additional markets for development
throughout the state. GCM Grosvenor's investment, as well as its
expertise in the telecom and fiber-optic infrastructure sector,
will help propel Horizon to continue its network expansion and
provide superior services to its customers throughout the
region.
"With world-class partners such as Novacap and GCM Grosvenor at
our side, Horizon has a significant advantage to continue on this
path of growth and transformation," says Jim Capuano, CEO of Horizon. "Our new
partnership will allow us to enhance our services for our existing
customers while pursuing new markets in the years ahead."
"Since our investment in 2018, we have been very excited about
Horizon's growth to date. As we have supplemented the senior
management team with other experienced telecom operators, the team
has entered new markets and accelerated the growth of its broadband
business. With an experienced investor like GCM Grosvenor as our
new partner, we expect to continue growing throughout Ohio and the Midwest with the added ability to
now provide fiber-based connectivity to residential customers,"
notes Ted Mocarski, Chairperson of
the Horizon Board of Directors and Senior Partner at Novacap
TMT.
"GCM Grosvenor is excited to announce this investment in
Horizon, a growing and well-positioned communications
infrastructure provider with what we consider a significant
competitive advantage in its region from both a cost and
time-to-market perspective," states Matthew
Rinklin, Managing Director at GCM Grosvenor.
"We look forward to partnering with the outstanding investment
team at Novacap and the experienced management team at Horizon, who
we strongly believe will leverage their proven track record,
operational excellence and focus on exceptional customer service to
achieve greater market share going forward," adds James DiMola, Executive Director at GCM
Grosvenor.
Horizon and Novacap were represented in this transaction by
Paul Hastings, LLP, and GCM
Grosvenor was represented by Morgan
Lewis & Bockius, LLP.
# # #
Source: Horizon Telcom, Inc.
About Horizon
Horizon is a facilities-based, fiber-optic broadband service
provider based in Ohio with
expanding services across the Midwest. Operating 5,500+ route miles
of fiber, Horizon provides high-quality connectivity solutions for
small to large enterprise and wholesale carrier customers, where
high reliability and high availability are critical.
The extensive network offers high-speed Ethernet, Dedicated
Internet Access, Hosted Voice and UCaaS, dark fiber, wavelength,
and data center connectivity services. Horizon partners with
carriers, government, healthcare, education, and enterprise
businesses offering flexible and customizable fiber network
solutions with a remarkable commitment to customer care and
cutting-edge fiber-optic technology. For more information, visit
horizonconnects.com.
About GCM Grosvenor
GCM Grosvenor (Nasdaq: GCMG) is a global alternative asset
management solutions provider with approximately $67 billion in assets under management across
private equity, infrastructure, real estate, credit, and absolute
return investment strategies. The firm is in its 50th year of
operation and is dedicated to delivering value for clients in the
growing alternative investment asset classes.
GCM Grosvenor's experienced team of approximately 500
professionals serves a global client base of institutional and high
net worth investors. The firm is headquartered in Chicago, with offices in New York, Los
Angeles, Toronto,
London, Tokyo, Hong
Kong, and Seoul. For more
information, please visit: www.gcmgrosvenor.com.
GCM Grosvenor's Labor Impact Strategy seeks to originate and
execute infrastructure projects that leverage the inclusion of
union labor as a contributing factor to enabling attractive
risk-adjusted returns. The goal of the strategy is to find
attractive infrastructure investment opportunities that can be
unlocked through close cooperation across labor, government, and
private capital.
About Novacap
Founded in 1981, Novacap is a leading Canadian private equity
firm with more than C$8B of AUM that has invested in more
than 100 platform companies and completed more than 150 add-on
acquisitions. Applying its sector-focused approach since 2007 in
TMT, Industries and now Financial Services, Novacap's deep domain
expertise can accelerate company growth and create long-term value.
With experienced, dedicated investment and operations teams as well
as substantial funding, Novacap has the resources and knowledge to
build world-class businesses. Novacap has offices in Brossard,
Quebec and Toronto, Ontario. For more information,
please visit www.novacap.ca.
Media Contacts
Ashley Gray
Horizon
Ashley.Gray@HorizonConnects.com
740-993-9660
Tom Johnson and Will Braun
Abernathy MacGregor
tbj@abmac.com / whb@abmac.com
212-371-5999
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SOURCE Horizon