Daisy Group, a UK B2B telco, has agreed a £27.3m unconditional cash offer for local rival SpiriTel, the companies announced today.
The offer, recommended by SpiriTel directors, values the target at 51.5p per ordinary share and represents a premium of…
Daisy Group, a UK B2B telco, has agreed a £27.3m unconditional cash offer for local rival SpiriTel, the companies announced today.
The offer, recommended by SpiriTel directors, values the target at 51.5p per ordinary share and represents a premium of approximately 13.2% to yesterday’s closing price of 45.5p pence per SpiriTel share.
SpiriTel was advised on the transaction by Hammonds, finnCap and Knight Corporate Finance, while Daisy lists only its broker Liberum Capital in its own announcement. The company was unable to provide the name of the financial adviser by press time.
Spiritel, like its buyer, is a growth vehicle, completing 12 acquisitions since 2006 to grow its customer base to 4,000 SMEs, larger national and international companies and organisations.
The target focuses on hosted VoIP solutions, virtualised telephony and reselling mobile voice and data solutions to business customers.
Heralding his company’s largest acquisition to date, Daisy CEO Matthew Riley said it had strengthened its foothold in the mid-market, while also fortifying its sales and engineering teams.
“Over the last 18 months, Daisy Group has acquired and integrated 10 businesses. The Board believes the experience of those acquisitions should enable an efficient integration of SpiriTel into the Daisy Group platform.”
In a Q&A with TelecomFinance earlier this year, Riley said that the company – which prior to today’s announcement had a market cap of £260m – plans to double in size over the next three years via organic growth and further acquisitions. Daisy signed a £75m three-year revolving credit facility with Lloyds TSB, HSBC and Yorkshire Bank in June, saying at the time that it planned to spend this on acquisitions.
Penta Capital is the majority owner of SpiriTel, having placed its original investment in 2003 and led a £10m fundraising in November 2009. As part of the transaction, after a short handover period, CEO Alastair Mills and CFO Ronnie Smith will be leaving the business, to focus on other business ventures.
