Letter of Intent on Instaclustr transaction close
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The Instaclustr acquisition by NetApp has officially closed, meaning the ASX-listed tech investor, Bailador, has just added $118m of cash to its kitty.
Backstory: Instaclustr, a cloud data platform, was acquired by US-listed NetApp for $500m+ (although we think it was closer to $1bn).
Why it's the BFD: While Instaclustr sounds like something you might mutter to yourself as you watch the markets open and see your tech stocks fall each morning — for Bailador, it's representative of quite the opposite.
- In 6yrs, Bailador's Instaclustr investment delivered them an 80% IRR and 14x return.
- And together with the realisation of another investment — Standard Media Index — they're about to come into a whole lot of money. $138m, to be exact.
- To put that in perspective, that $138m of cash + the ~$90m of fairly liquid Siteminder & Straker stock would make them a top 5 VC fund in Australia by size.
- Their Siteminder stock is escrowed for another ~2mths; until after its FY22 results.
- The relatively low-key shop has managed to unlock liquidity for its 3 largest investments near the market top and is now positioned with with a stack of cash to deploy just as the market corrects itself.
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