Unicom continues growth in year of sale
TELECOMS service provider Unicom grew sales by 11% to £56.3m in the year to April 30, 2011. Pre-tax profits edged up by just £200,000 to £13m.
Newly-filed accounts for Northenden-based Universal Utilities (which trades as Unicom) firm also confirm that the business was sold to Etihad Acquisitions, a subsidiary of Vitruvian Partners, on April 23.
The private equity firm is understood to have paid more than £100m for the business. It had previously been majority-owned by Macclesfield-based Simon Clarke, who held 67% of the shares. His business partner Stephen Palmer of Alderley Edge held the remaining 33%.
Mr Palmer resigned from the company after the sale completed, leaving operations director Chris Earle and customer relations director Janette Palmer as the two remaining directors.
Following the deal, the company took on £42.5m worth of debt which has been secured against all of the company’s existing assets and future profits.
Unicom offers phone, broadband and mobile services to SMEs. It employs around 480 people. Accounts showed that the company also paid out more than £2.4m in share-based payments to employees during the year. The company’s directors received £713,000 in share payments.
