American Internet Lands $43.5 Million Credit Facility

American Internet Services has refinanced at a great time, lowering its cost of capital due to historically low interest rates, as well as providing some capital for continued growth. Fortress Credit Corp, an affiliate of Fortress Investment Group, has provided the company a $43.5 million senior secured credit facility. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

AIS was founded way back in 1989. It provides tailored data center and cloud service solutions to companies with an emphasis on security, compliance, connectivity, and customer service. AIS operates SSAE 16-compliant, SOC 1-, 2-, and 3-audited, redundant facilities in San Diego, Los Angeles and Phoenix. It has more than 600 enterprise customers worldwide, and is backed by private equity firms Seaport Capital, Viridian Investments, and DuPont Capital Management,

"Refinancing AIS’ debt enables us to take advantage of historically low interest rates while providing resources for additional investment in new products and services, continuing our market expansion, and meeting the developing needs of our customers," said Tim Caulfield, Chief Executive Officer at AIS. "We look forward to working with Fortress, a knowledgeable and experienced lender to the internet infrastructure sector."

Fortress Investment Group LLC is a global investment firm with over $53 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2012. Founded in 1998, Fortress manages assets on behalf of over 1,400 institutional clients and private investors worldwide across a range of investment strategies - private equity, credit, liquid hedge funds and traditional fixed income.

"This financing illustrates Fortress’s continuing support for middle market companies in the data center and cloud service sector,” said Ken Sands, a Managing Director of the Credit Funds, Fortress Investment Group. “AIS is a recognized regional leader in tailored data center and cloud service solutions and we are pleased to have arranged this financing that will support their future growth.”

DH Capital served as advisor to AIS on the financing. DH Capital is a private investment banking partnership specializing in Internet infrastructure, telecommunications, and SaaS with a focus on M&A and capital placements.