New year, new deal for data storage firm

ONE MORE THING:This year might be just four days old but one corporate buyout deal is already in the bag.

Management at Belfast-based data storage company Oasis Group led a €12.5 million takeover of the business, which operates on both sides of the Border and in Britain.

The management team of Gary McElroy, Stewart Porter and Peter McCormick is being backed by Dublin-based Rogers Group Investments, a vehicle controlled by businessman Des Rogers. Both parties will own half of the business.

They bought out Patrick Oman and Ashley Mathews, who owned about 60 per cent of the data management group between them.

Rogers and his brother Feargal made about €45 million in 2006 from the sale of Sterile Technologies Ireland to US group Stericycle. He has quietly been investing in a number of businesses since then.

Oasis provides offsite document and computer media storage for corporations and government agencies. It is a growing area, with legislation requiring companies to retain records for set periods.

It operates in the North as McConnell Archive Storage and as Oman Archives in the Republic.

It also recently set up a business in Britain called ORM and has a micrographics arm called MC2.

Clients include Anglo Irish Bank, Bank of Scotland and Bank of Ireland.

Between them, the four business units expect to achieve revenues of more than €12 million this year. "We think there's tremendous growth potential in the business," said McCormick, an American who was previously head of marketing at Dublin-based financial security software group Fineos.

"The growth will come both organically and through acquisition - we're looking at one acquisition in the UK at the moment."