Triton-backed OCU Group acquires Opals
London / Manchester (England), 12 August 2022 – Instalcom Limited, a division of Triton V portfolio company OCU Group Limited (“OCU”), has acquired Opals (UK) Limited and Opals Services Limited (together “Opals”). Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Opals is headquartered in Peterborough, England, and provides telecommunications infrastructure services for all types of digital communications networks across the country. The acquisition helps to reinforce OCU’s presence in the South and East of England and add significant specialist fibre experience to the business, as it develops its fast-growing telecoms offering.
OCU’s acquisition of Opals reflects its plans to consolidate the fragmented UK infrastructure services market, as part of a broader strategy to further grow the company’s core businesses under Triton’s stewardship.
Vince Bowler, Managing Director of Instalcom, said: “We are delighted to welcome the Opals team into the OCU family as we look to further grow the business in line with our Group strategy. The acquisition of Opals represents another significant step in our ambition to become a leader in full fibre network delivery and expands our presence into the East Midlands and East of England. Under Sam’s entrepreneurship and guidance, the Opals business has flourished, and we look forward to working with Sam and the Opals management team.”
Sam Hodge, Managing Director and Founder of Opals, added: “Opals and I are delighted to become part of OCU, a business that is at the forefront of the fibre roll-out across the country and very much aligned with our culture and strategy. There are many synergies between the businesses; not only will these allow us to expand our capacity for our customers but crucially accelerate the deployment of fibre in the East Midlands and East of England. I believe OCU to be the ideal partner, given they share our vision of providing a responsive, professional, and innovative service to our market leading customer base.”
About OCU Group
Founded in 1994, OCU is an innovative service provider in the utilities industry, operating on a national scale. The Company delivers a wide range of customer-focused business solutions throughout the UK and Ireland, working with a large blue-chip client base in all utility areas including electricity, gas, water, telecoms, rail, and directional drilling. OCU is a fast-growing organisation that prides itself on being innovative utility engineering experts that always provide an exceptional level of service for our clients and the millions of customers associated with them.
For further information: www.ocultd.co.uk/
About Opals
Opals started trading in 2012 and has grown within the industry to become an established and leading network infrastructure services company, offering an extensive range of complementary services covering civil engineering, fibre optics and traffic management. Opals has a workforce of over 200 employees and contractors and delivered revenues of c.£10m in its latest accounts.
Working with network operators to design, build, maintain and repair full fibre network infrastructure, Opals’ customer base includes Upp, Netomnia and Openreach where they provide a total delivery solution from their East of England head-office in Peterborough.
For further information: www.opalsgroup.com
About Triton
Since its establishment in 1997, Triton has sponsored ten funds, focusing on businesses in the industrial tech, services, consumer, and healthcare sectors. Triton invests in and supports the positive development of medium-sized businesses headquartered in Europe.
Triton seeks to contribute to the building of better businesses for the longer term. Triton and its executives wish to be agents of positive change towards sustainable operational improvement and growth.
The companies currently in Triton’s portfolio have combined sales of around EUR 18.1 billion and employ around 104,000 employees.
For further information: www.triton-partners.com
