Chess eyes larger-scale acquisitions

VAR secures a £21m refinancing deal with Barclays to carry out next stage of M&A plans

Ambitious telecoms service provider Chess Telecom is planning to use a £21m refinancing war chest to make larger-scale acquisitions.

The Alderley Edge-based firm has recently secured the extra funding through Barclays, with the intention of gaining more traction in the voice space as it continues its acquisition spree.

Speaking to CRN, Richard Btesh, director of Chess, said: “Chess is in a position where we are doing well and raising our profile. We are a £35m-turnover business approximately. The acquisition policy that we have had over the past five or six years has been a proven model."

“We have been buying smaller businesses between £500,000 and £4m, but now I want to move up the scale and look at businesses of up to £10m,” he added.

Btesh added that the firm has gathered the necessary experience to be able to integrate larger buys into the existing company after 50 buys in just over five years.

“We have our voice acquisitions sewn up. Last September we bought Shaftsbury – a billing system specialist – and that was a really good buy for us. We intend to continue growing carefully and strategically and increasing our presence in the data space,” he said.

“A number of our acquisitions have been small businesses, and also we have just bought customer bases which has been a fairly easy transaction. I would say we have done about 10 or 12 ‘real’ acquisitions and it is that type of deal that I would like to do more of.”

He joked that there was "certainly no shortage" of applications from business owners wanting to sell their companies.

“I am getting a lot of phone calls. Anyone can buy a business, but it is about keeping the customers. There is no shortage of deals available but you have to make sure the backroom and integration is working well,” he said. “You have to be careful not to just buy businesses and have offices strewn around the country. There has to be a method and it has to fit properly.”