Daisy mulling stock market return - report

Comms provider declines to comment on Sunday Times article claiming it is eyeing £1.4bn flotation

Comms provider Daisy is remaining tight-lipped on a report that it is eyeing a return to the stock market.

Having been taken private in a £494m deal in January 2015, the Lancashire-based outfit is plotting a £1.4bn return to public ownership following its acquisitions of Damovo, Calyx, Phoenix IT and Alternative Networks, according a report in The Sunday Times yesterday.

A flotation is under consideration for late 2017 or early 2018, after the Alternative Networks integration has been completed, the report said.

Results filed recently on Companies House by Daisy Group Holdings show the firm hitting an adjusted EBITDA of £77m on revenue of £511.9m for the year to 31 March 2016.

That included only eight-and-a-half months' contribution from Phoenix IT, a "transformational" acquisition Daisy made in July 2015 that moved it further beyond its roots in telecoms and deeper into IT services.

Since then, Daisy has made another blockbuster acquisition in the shape of Alternative Networks, an AIM-listed comms provider with revenues of £136m, adding further IT services muscle.

Citing ‘city sources', The Sunday Times said Daisy could be valued at £1.4bn in any stock market return, based on a multiple of 11 times its £120m underlying earnings.

Daisy declined to comment on the article.