Daisy dials up £204m reverse takeover
LANCASHIRE’S Daisy Communications is to become a listed business after a £200m reverse takeover deal.
The Nelson-based company and is being bought by Freedom4 Group and another business, Vialtus, for £123m, and the enlarged business will raise £83m through a share placing.
When the deal completes, Freedom4 will change its name to Daisy Communications and the group will be led by the North West company’s award winning chief executive Matthew Riley.
Daisy has more than 30,000 customers, many of them Small and Medium-sized businesses and has 176 staff. Its new partner Vialtus is a mid-market managed IT solutions company. It has 5,270 customers and 177 employees.
Matthew Riley, CEO of Daisy, said: “‘Over the last 8 years, Daisy has grown to be a substantial provider of cost effective communications services, with over 30,000 SME customers. 
“With 24 acquisitions during this time, the management at Daisy has honed its consolidation and integration skills, maintaining customer service levels and creating a truly scalable operational platform.
“‘Daisy and Vialtus are two highly synergistic businesses; we believe that together they will be able to provide SME and mid-market customers with an effective and attractive one-stop-shop offer, and provide us with the solid foundations for our plans for future growth.’
Peter Dubens, chairman of Freedom4 Group said: “We are seeing an opportunity in the UK telecoms services market at the moment where the fragmented nature and depressed valuations in the sector create conditions which are well-suited for generating value through consolidation.
“Our experience in making carefully chosen acquisitions and integrating them properly gives us confidence in our ability to generate further value for our shareholders. One of the major strengths of Daisy is the unified brand and operating system which will be key to the group’s future success.’
Mr Riley is to make an estimated £30m from the deal.
Shares in the combined group, which will have a market capitalisation of £204m, will begin trading on August 4.
