Chess continues ICT market consolidation

CHESS ICT, a division of  Cheshire-based Chess Telecom, has bought Pinnacle CDT for £2.8m.

Pinnacle CDT provides data, telecommunication and certain IT support services to a large customer base from offices in Glasgow and Stockton-on-Tees. The business provides services across its own core network, own help desk and own softswitch.

It includes subsidiary companies: Accent Telecom UK Limited (now renamed Pinnacle CDT), Pinnacle Telecom plc and Pinnacle Cloud Solutions Limited.

In the year to 30 September 2015, the business generated revenue of £6.7m, a net loss before tax and head office costs of £200,000 and had net liabilities of £2.3m.

Pinnacle CDT employs 27 people, all of whom will transfer to Chess.

Chess ICT, which was itself acquired by Chess Telecom in 2014, has bought the firm from AIM-listed converged technology business Pinnacle Technology Group.

Pinnacle Technology said the disposal would help to reposition the group as a provider of ‘IT as a Service’, targeting recurring revenues and higher margin services.

Chess chief executive David Pollock said: “We see the Pinnacle acquisition as another important step on our growth journey. We’re an ambitious organisation with a desire to grow and be great at what we do and we’re proud to welcome the people and customers from Pinnacle CDT into our organisation. They share our passion for delivering technological advantage to customers. It’ll be a rewarding journey for us all and most importantly our customers.”

Richard Btesh, director of Chess, said: “This latest acquisition demonstrates to other potential sellers in the Telecoms, Data and ICT sector that Chess remains the stand-out choice for those selling all or part of their business, our acquisition machine is primed to take advantage of the consolidation of customers and relationships.”

Chess is one of the most successful consolidators of the telecoms market having made many successful acquisitions to date.

The Alderley Edge-based company, which employs around 500 staff, is expanding from telecoms to the cloud, data and hosted space and now includes Parachute IT (now Chess ICT), IRW Systems, elbillz, Integra ICT, Avenir Telecoms and The CRM Business.

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