No job cuts at Calyx claims CEO after MXC takeover

Chief executive Steve Clark says he is targeting acquisitions following takeover

Calyx's chief executive Steve Clark has told CRN there will be no job cuts following the MXC Capital deal to buy the MSP for £9m, after a widely contested bidding battle.

Yesterday it was announced that investment house MXC Capital has penned a deal for Calyx, which was previously owned by Better Capital, which acquired the MSP from administration in 2010.

Clark said that following the move there will be no job losses at Calyx and claimed "it's absolutely business as usual". He also revealed that revenues for the 2014 calendar year were £22m, down from the previous year when they were at £23.9m.

He said, however, that the company was profitable, with its EBITDA at £400,000. He said he was targeting revenues of £24m for 2015, and EBITDA of £600,000.

Clark added that prior to the MXC bid more than a dozen organisations initially approached Calyx.

"We had a number of trade buyers looking at us, as well as merchant banks and for us it could have gone either way, but in the end MXC was a perfect fit for us," he said.

While he would not disclose the names of any of the firms that also made bids, he said a range of companies were interested, including telecoms firms looking to move into IT.

"We have created an attractive asset that had a good fit for a number of different environments and that's exactly what we set out to do two years ago," he said.

He claimed Calyx made the deal with MXC because it wanted more financial backing to invest in the firm to facilitate its growth, and its previous backer, Better Capital, did not have these funds available.

"In the managed services environment, scale is absolutely paramount so we needed a backer who has money to spend, so we could grow organically as well as through acquisitions. MXC is a proven merchant bank which has a track record of providing value for their shareholders and growing businesses organically as well as through acquisitions so it was a perfect fit for us."

Clark indicated that Calyx would be looking for acquisitions to grow the business, but said it was yet to be decided which kind of firms it would be looking to take on.

He added that he would be carrying on in his role as chief executive at Calyx, while chief financial officer Tim Darbyshire is moving to Calyx's sister company m-hance, also owned by Better Capital. Jill Collighan of MXC will step into a role as the MSP's chief financial director.