Europe-focused satellite broadband services provider Satellite Solutions Worldwide Limited (SSW) has listed on London’s AIM exchange following its reverse takeover by special purpose acquisition vehicle Cleeve Capital. The deal valued SSW at £5.19m…
Europe-focused satellite broadband services provider Satellite Solutions Worldwide Limited (SSW) has listed on London’s AIM exchange following its reverse takeover by special purpose acquisition vehicle Cleeve Capital.
The deal valued SSW at £5.19m (US$8.12m), which was satisfied by the issue of 115,384,615 consideration shares at a price of 4.5p per share. SSW subsequently changed its name to Satellite Solutions Worldwide Group PLC.
In conjunction with the acquisition, the newly listed company raised a further £2.25m through the issue of 50 million new ordinary shares at a price of 4.5p per share to both existing and new investors.
SSW now has a total 308,146,282 ordinary shares in issue implying a market capitalisation of £13.87m.
Cleeve Capital was formed as a SPAC late last year after it completed an IPO on the London Stock Exchange on 19 December. The listing raised gross proceeds of £3.35m. It has since been looking for a takeover target and announced in early March that it was in talks with SSW over a proposed acquisition.
UK-based SSW provides satellite broadband services across Europe under its Europasat brand. Formed in November 2008 by Andrew Walwyn, SSW uses capacity from Eutelsat, SES and Avanti to offer its broadband services. It is also in talks with other satellite operators including ViaSat to improve its offering.
Rodger Sargent, Cleeve’s largest shareholder and now the non-Executive Chairman of SSW, commented: “We listed Cleeve with the aim of completing an acquisition within the TMT sector. The quality of SSW’s management team and offering provided what we felt was the perfect investment opportunity and we look forward to creating value for existing and new shareholders.”
Newly-listed SSW to undertake buy and build strategy
Post-acquisition, the enlarged company now plans to act as a consolidator snapping up smaller satellite broadband rivals.
In a statement to the stock market, SSW said: “The enlarged group intends to pursue a “roll-up” strategy, which is one of the principal reasons behind the acquisition and admission. SSW has been involved in advanced talks and conducted due diligence on a number of potential acquisition targets prior to commencement of the acquisition process, and it is intended that the enlarged group will continue such discussions and complete the acquisition of one or more of these potential targets.
“The directors of the enlarged group have identified a number of other potential acquisition targets throughout Europe and believe that in some cases the owners of these target assets may be willing sellers. This may be as a result of the target company/asset not being able to reach ‘critical mass’ in terms of the number of users required to be profitable, or for others the asset may now be viewed as a non-core business, or it may be due to the owners lacking the required capital to invest in the asset to take the business to the next stage.”
SSW plan to fund the acquisitions through a mix of cash and share issuances to the seller. The company currently has cash resources of approximately £5m.
If the strategy proves successful, SSW is targeting becoming the leading satellite ISP in Europe by the end of 2017 with approximately 100,000 customers. It will then target countries outside of Europe, in particular Australia, India and certain African countries.
Strand Hanson acted as Cleeve’s financial adviser, Arden Partners its broker and Walker Morris legal adviser on the transaction.
