Softcat agrees $1.05bn deal for GDT and raises its profit outlook
Softcat is buying a Dallas-based networking specialist with a loss-making 2025 behind it, and will take on debt to do it
- Softcat's own sterling figure for the deal is £785m, at the exchange rate on 16 September.
- Excluding GDT, Softcat expects high single-digit underlying operating profit growth in its 2027 financial year.
- GDT has a team of about 230 people in Bengaluru, India, working on service delivery and operations.
- Softcat publishes its full 2026 results on 14 October.
UK partners that compete with Softcat for large accounts are likely to hear a new pitch: US fulfillment and deeper networking skills for customers with sites across the Atlantic. With Cisco, NetApp and NVIDIA, a combined Softcat and GDT looks set to carry more weight in global vendor programs than Softcat does alone.
The flip side is that Softcat's guidance for underlying operating profit growth outside GDT slows to high single digits in its 2027 financial year, and management attention and debt now point west. Rivals chasing Softcat's mid-market customers may find this is a good moment to ask for the meeting.
“The acquisition, which we're executing from a position of strength, significantly accelerates our capability in the US and enhances the support we can offer to large and complex customers with multinational needs”Graham Charlton, CEO, Softcat
Softcat agreed on 17 September to buy GDT, a US data center and networking solutions provider, for an enterprise value of $1.05bn (£793m). In the same stock exchange announcement it raised its outlook for its 2026 financial year: it now expects high-teens growth in underlying operating profit, up from mid-teens, with gross profit growing moderately faster.
GDT was founded in 1996, is based in Dallas and serves about 700 upper mid-market and enterprise customers. It lists Cisco, NetApp and NVIDIA among its vendor partners. Softcat expects GDT to deliver gross profit of about $240m (£181m) in calendar 2026, up around 30%, and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of about $80m (£60m). Those are forecasts. The announcement also shows GDT made an attributable net loss of $58.4m (£44m) in 2025, a figure that includes amortization and interest costs from its current capital structure. The sellers are affiliated with private equity firm H.I.G. Capital.
Softcat will pay with £100m of cash, £550m of new bank debt and a £350m share placing. It says it ended its 2026 financial year with net cash, and expects its net debt ratio to be 1.3 times at completion, falling below 1.0 times by the end of its 2028 financial year. The deal needs US antitrust clearance and approval from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, and is expected to close by the end of the first quarter of calendar 2027.
