Shearman & Sterling advised funds managed by Ares Management Limited as lenders on the refinancing of X1F, a portfolio company of Ufenau Capital Partners. X1F is following a dedicated buy-and-build strategy with the aim to further strengthen its position as a full-service IT provider.

X1F is headquartered in Munich, Germany, and was founded in 2021 out of a merger of IKOR (a Hamburg-based specialized IT consulting provider), and matrix technology AG (a Munich-based IT consulting and managed service provider), and Informationsfabrik (a Münster-based specialized provider of data platforms, analytics and artificial intelligence). X1F is a leading full-service IT provider in regulated and complex customer segments, such as insurance, banking and the public sector. After completing two more add-ons in 2021, X1F now employs 720 employees across 26 locations in ten countries in Europe, North America and Australia, and services around 285 customers globally.

Ares Management is a leading global alternative asset manager with approximately $282 billion of assets under management as of September 30, 2021 and approximately 2,000 employees operating across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East.

The Team