PETALING JAYA: Ekuiti Nasional Bhd (Ekuinas) has acquired an initial 40% stake in web hosting and cloud service provider Exabytes Capital Group for RM44 million, with an option to raise its stake up to 54%.
Ekuinas CEO Syed Yasir Arafat Syed Abd Kadir (pix) said Ekuinas is broadening its footprint in the services industry and in accordance with its mandate, it is 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. Through Exabytes, Ekuinas will be able to capitalise on the booming internet economy globally, which is currently valued at US$3.5 trillion,” he said in a statement today.
He said the stake acquisition in Exabytes is Ekuinas’ second investment in technology services and it is optimistic of the company’s prospect as an enabling technology business.
“Exabytes is a dominant player in three markets and has delivered consistent historical financial performance and customer growth every year. Given its strong, experienced and founder-led senior management team, we are confident that Exabytes will continue on its growth trajectory with the global market for hosting expected to grow at 9% annually driven by increasing internet penetration and digitalisation of businesses.
“We look forward to working with a high potential Malaysian entrepreneur to share his vision in taking the company to the next phase of growth,” he added.
Launched in 2001, Exabytes is one of the leading multi-market web hosting companies in Southeast Asia and serves more than 100,000 customers ranging from individuals, small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), public listed companies and government agencies.
The company was founded on the principle of helping SMEs grow their businesses online. It has a market share of nearly 30% in Malaysia and an 18-year track record of strong service, and is expected to scale in line with the growth of the industry.
As part of the company’s long-term plan, Exabytes has been rapidly expanding regionally through merger and acquisitions over the last three years, which enables it to grow its business in different segments in the respective markets.
Exabytes founder and CEO Kee Siak Chan said it will accelerate its plans to continue building the company and advancing its business into new markets across the Southeast Asian region with support from Ekuinas.
“We will be improving on our 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 upselling 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,” said Kee.
