Two former Virgin Media executives have formed Zegona Communications, which aims to buy up struggling TMT assets, repair them, and then sell them on.
Zegona has announced plans to list on AIM, London’s junior market, and is looking to raise up to…
Two former Virgin Media executives have formed Zegona Communications, which aims to buy up struggling TMT assets, repair them, and then sell them on.
Zegona has announced plans to list on AIM, London’s junior market, and is looking to raise up to £30m.
The company has said it will target investments that are “strategically sound businesses that require active change to realise full value”, with a view to creating a small portfolio of large assets with enterprise values from £1bn (US$1.5bn) to £3bn (US$4.6bn). It will initially look to acquire one asset, onto which it may then bolt others. TelecomFinance understands that it plans to buy its first asset, likely a cableco, in the next 18 months.
Specifically, Zegona is eyeing network-based communications and entertainment opportunities to which it can apply its “buy-fix-sell” strategy, with longlist of 70 potential acquisitions across Europe.
Zegona is looking to follow the business model of Melrose Industries, the UK engineering turnaround specialist which has created a lucrative business by flipping companies.
In a statement, Zegona said it expected strong backing from major institutional investors for its AIM placement. It plans to raise significant additional capital at the time of any acquisitions.
JP Morgan is acting as joint bookrunner and joint broker on the placement. Oakley Capital is also a joint bookrunner, and Cenkos Securities is acting as nominated adviser and joint broker.
Zegona has been created by Eamonn O’Hare, Virgin Media’s CFO prior to its takeover by Liberty Global, and Robert Samuelson, who was executive director of group strategy at Virgin Media between 2011 and 2014. Both were involved in the US$23.3bn sale of the cable operator to Liberty Global.
O’Hare is Zegona’s chairman and chief executive while Samuelson has taken on the role of chief operating officer.
O’Hare comes from a corporate background. Prior to joining Virgin Media in 2009 he was CFO at UK supermarket giant Tesco for four years, and before that he held the same role at Energis, a fibre-optic network operator later bought by Cable & Wireless. Previous to that he spent 10 years at PepsiCo.
Samuelson was a managing partner at the Virgin Group responsible for developing its telecoms and media businesses before taking his position at Virgin Media. Before that he co-led the European corporate finance practice at consultancy Arthur D. Little, where he provided strategic advice to European telecom operators.
