Daisy chief wins national dealmaker award

MATTHEW Riley, the chief executive of telecoms firm Daisy Group, has been named Dealmaker of the Year at the annual M&A Awards.

The awards ceremony, held in London, recognised mergers and acquisition achievements from across the business community, in what organisers called “some of the most challenging market conditions”.

The company, based in Nelson, Lancashire, completed the £204m reverse takeover of Freedom 4 and flotation on the Alternative Investment Market in July last year.

It went on to complete six acquisitions in the last financial year, taking the total number of deals done by Riley and his team to 30.

Mr Riley said: “This award is testament to the Daisy team that work tirelessly to ensure the company can continue with its strategy for growth. The reverse takeover and flotation allowed up to carry out key acquisitions and gave us a real foothold to stay ahead of our competitors and gain ground on BT.”

Flotation on AIM freed up cash for Daisy and allowed Riley to pursue a strategy of consolidating the reseller market, with the acquisitions of Vialtus, Eurotel, AT Communications and Redstone Telecom able to be completed in quick succession, with synergies of £17m achieved through the integration of the deals.

Since the turn of the year the company has also completed the acquisitions of Managed Communications and BNS Telecom.

Mr Riley added: “Daisy’s ambition has always been to be the only alternative to BT for UK businesses and we are closer to reaching this goal, with solid foundations for our plans for future growth. The fact that we have been able to do this in one of the worst downturns this country has ever seen is a fantastic achievement for everyone involved with the company.”

Another regional winner at the awards was Inflexion Private Equity – which sold out of Scottish company Viking Moorings last July for £170m, generating a return of 12 times its initial investment.

Inflexion, which ran the Viking investment out of its Manchester office, was named Finance Specialist of the Year.