UK-based internet provider Satellite Solutions Worldwide (AIM:SAT) has acquired French rival Sat2Way out of administration for €825,000 (US$914k) in cash.
It is the second acquisition SSW has announced since vowing to go on a spending spree after…
UK-based internet provider Satellite Solutions Worldwide (AIM:SAT) has acquired French rival Sat2Way out of administration for €825,000 (US$914k) in cash.
It is the second acquisition SSW has announced since vowing to go on a spending spree after listing on London’s AIM exchange in May, and comes as the French government is looking to incentivise satellite broadband for many homes and businesses in the country.
The deal boosts the number of customers it has in France from around 1,000 to more than 6,500, as well as adding an unspecified number of subscribers in Spain, Switzerland and Belgium. Last-mile specialist SSW said it is also now well positioned to target an addressable market of one million homes that have less than 2 Mbps of broadband coverage.
It said a lot of those households have been offered government subsidies through the country’s ‘subvention’ scheme.
“Following this acquisition, France is now our second biggest market after the UK, and we expect to expand further there in due course,” SSW CEO Andrew Walwyn said.
“France is a model case study on how government support can rapidly accelerate satellite broadband adoption, and we are aware that a number of other European governments in our key markets are considering similar schemes. I believe we face very exciting times ahead.”
Sat2Way posted €2.54m (US$2.81m) in sales and a net loss of €0.34m (US$0.37m) for 2014. It had about €0.16m (US$0.18m) in net liabilities for the year ended 30 June 2014, rising to €1.05m (US$1.16m) in unaudited management accounts for the eight months ended 28 February 2015.
SSW will have a customer base of about 20,000 after the acquisition, some 2,300 of which were picked up last month when it bought Irish satellite broadband provider Onwave for around €0.9m (US$1m). The company claimed there are more than 300,000 Irish households with less than 2 Mbps broadband connections.
The Oxfordshire-based group listed earlier this year following a reverse takeover by a special purpose acquisition vehicle called Cleeve Capital.
It vowed to go on a buy and build strategy soon after the move, and said it was already in advanced talks with a number of targets. Its customer base is up 65% since the listing in May.
Tom Pridmore and Simon McGivern, two SSW non-executive directors who were involved in the flotation and fundraising, announced plans to step down with immediate effect after the Sat2Way deal.
Walwyn commented: “Their stewardship and vision have been integral in putting the company on its exciting path of consolidating the European satellite broadband industry.”
Strand Hanson is SSW’s financial adviser.
