Daisy and SpiriTel unite in comms mega-merger

Acquisitive publicly listed providers join forces as Daisy lays out £27.5m on London rival

Matthew Riley: This acquisition gives Daisy a strong foothold in the mid-market

Two of the comms channel's biggest consolidators have come together as Daisy has gobbled up rival SpiriTel in its biggest acquisition to date.

Both companies are publicly listed and, between them, have acquired 40 companies. Daisy has agreed a £27.5m buyout of the City of London-based comms firm, making this its largest deal so far.

In the year to the end of April, SpiriTel turned over £21.3m. Daisy is to acquire its £6.1m of bank debt, which it intends to refinance through its £75m banking facility with HSBC, Yorkshire Bank and Lloyds TSB.

SpiriTel operates two divisions; its Business arm sells voice and data offerings into the commercial market, while the Technologies unit addresses infrastructure and wholesale voice. The firm's key vendor partners include Mitel, and it recently became certified to offer the Canadian comms manufacturer's virtualised telephony platform.

Daisy chief executive Matthew Riley claimed today's deal boosted his firm's standing in the upper echelons of the market.

"The Daisy Board believes that this acquisition gives Daisy a strong foothold in the mid-market, strengthening our sales team and engineering force, while significantly enhancing both our product portfolio and customer base," he added.

"With our data hosting capabilities from the former Vialtus Solutions business, this deal gives us a great cross-sale opportunity to sell hosted solutions and fill our three datacentres in London, M anchester and Fareham. In addition, SpiriTel's position as a Mitel Premier Partner, coupled with a nationwide engineering force will see enhancements to Daisy Group's systems and maintenance division."